
Glass. 
Book. 



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gladstone-Parnell. 



AND 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 



A COMPLETE AND THRILLING HISTORY OF THE FEARFUL INJUSTICE AND 
OPPRESSION INFLICTED UPON THE IRISH TENANTS BY LANDLORDISM 
SUPPORTED BY COERCIVE LEGISLATION. FULL AND AUTHEN- 
TIC ACCOUNT OF THE GREAT HOME RULE MOVEMENT — 
CHAMPIONED BY GLADSTONE — ROCKING THE BRIT- 
ISH EMPIRE AND AGITATING THE WORLD. 

TOGETHER WITH 

BIOGRAPHIES OF GLADSTONE, PARNELL AND OTHERS. 



BY HON. 'i'. P^ O'CONNOR, M.P., 

Author, Journalist and Member of Parliament for Liverpool. 

AND R. M. McWADE, ESQ., 

. /» l,<_^ember of Executive Com. of the Land League in the U. S. 

INTRODUCTION 

BY HON. CHARLES STEWART PARNELL^M.P. 



PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED. 



HUBBARD BROS., Publishers, 

PHILADELPHIA, BOSTON, CINCINNATI, KANSAS CITY AND ATLANTA. 

G. L. HOWE, Chicago ; W. A. HOUGHTON, New York ; 
A. L. BANCROFT & CO., San Francisco. 



&C) 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in tlie year 1886, by 

HUBBARD BROTHERS, 

In the Office of tlie Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 



INTRODUCTION. 



I HAVE pleasure in writing a few lines of 
preface to Mr. T. P. O'Connor's volume. I 
know no one who is better fitted to present the 
case of Ireland, and especially the history of our 
movement, before the public of America. His 
vigorous and picturesque pen makes everything 
he writes lucid, interesting, and effective ; and he 
has had the advantage of himself taking a promi- 
nent and honorable part in many of the scenes 
he so graphically describes. I believe it espe- 
cially desirable to have our case properly stated 
to the American public at the present moment. 
No Irishman can speak too warmly of the ex- 
traordinary assistance that America has rendered 
to the cause of Ireland. The financial and moral 
support which our movement has received from 
the Great Republic has been recognized by 
eminent English Statesmen as an entirely new 

factor in the present movement, and as giving it 

3 



4 INTRODUCTION. 

a strength and a power of endurance absent 
from many previous Irish efforts. It is at mo- 
ments of crisis like the present, when other po- 
Htical parties face the expense and difficulties of 
a political campaign with hesitation and appre- 
hension, that one really appreciates the enormous 
position of vantage in which American generosity 
has placed the Irish party. Then the unanimity 
of opinion both among the statesmen and the 
journalists of America has done much to en- 
courage men like Mr. Gladstone, who are fight- 
ing for the Irish cause, and to fill Ireland's enemies 
with the grave misgiving that the policy con- 
demned by another great and free nation may not 
be sound or just. For these reasons we are all 
especially desirous that American opinion should 
be made acquainted with the merits and facts of 
this great controversy, and the following pages 
are eminently calculated to perform that good 
work. 

Charles Stewart Parnell. 

London, August, 1886. 






lyu^^ 




AMERICAN INTRODUCTION. 

BY A. BURKS, D.D., LL.D., 

President Wesleyan Female College, Hamilton, Ont. 



'HE following pages cover one of the most 
interesting periods in Irish history. The 
story related falls mainly within the memory of 
most of its readers, embracing scarce the last 
two decades. 

It is written by a university man of scholarly 
attainments, a brilliant journalist and author, one 
who, although comparatively a young man yet, 
is fairly entided to say of most of the strug- 
gles and scenes he describes, quoi'um pars magna 
fui. 

The book may be taken as a representative 
putting of the great struggle now going on, and 
as such it may fairly claim the attention of all in- 
terested in the peace and prosperity of Ireland. 
None need be told that that land is now unhappy 
and somewhat disaffected^ Her harp is on the 
willows, her songs are threnodies. Yet no one 
can become acquainted with her children without 

7 



g INTRODUCTION TO CANADIAN EDITION. 

discovering that naturally they are cheerful, light- 
hearted and hopeful. Nor can you give to one 
of them a cup of cold water without waking a 
genuine inborn gratitude. Whether at home or 
abroad, the rac'e is hopeful, grateful, and essen- 
tially patriotic. A kind word jr deed for Ireland 
will brighten the eye, quicken the pulse, arouse 
the enthusiasm, and win the affection of her chil- 
dren the world over. 

Have her critics furnished an adequate expla- 
nation of the present unhappy condition of such a 
people? The passionate outbursts of her out- 
raged sons receive due prominence. Her agra- 
rian crimes are published far and wide. Bu,': few 
are candid enough to admit that the crimes of Ire- 
land are chiefly agrarian, and caused by the 
wholesale confiscation of her soil, and the strug- 
gles of the descendants of the real owners to re- 
gain the lands of their fathers. Goldwin Smith 
tells us "an alien and absentee proprietary is the 
immediate source of her troubles." " The owner- 
ship of land in that country is itself the heritage 
of confiscation, and of confiscation which has 
never been foro^otten. The strueele is in fact the 
last stage of a long civil war between the con- 
quered race and an intrusive proprietary, which 
was closely identified with the political ascendency 
of the foreigner, and the religious ascendency of 
an alien creed." " The districts where agrarian 
violence has most prevailed have been singularly 



INTRODUCTION TO CANADIAN EDITION. 9 

free from ordinary crime. The Irish farmer has 
clung desperately to his homestead, eviction is to 
him destitution." "The crime (of the Irish) is 
solely agrarian. In the districts where it has 
been most rife, even in Tipperary itself, ordinary 
offences have been very rare," and he continues, 
"justice requires that we remember the training 
which the Irish as a nation have had, and of which 
the traces are still left upon their character. In 
1798 they were goaded into open rebellion by the 
wholesale flogging, half-hanging, pitch-capping 
and picketing which were carried on over a large 
district by the yeomanry and militiamen, who, as 
soon as the sufferina- masses beean to heave with 
disaffection, were launched upon the homes of the 
peasantry." 

Irish history is little studied. Few even of my 
countrymen know anything of the history of our 
country. A partial excuse may be found in the 
fact that even in the schools of Ireland the history 
of the country is not found. , Only as it may be 
considered necessary to explain English history is 
Ireland ever mentioned, and neither in common 
school nor in university have tlie children of Ire- 
land the faintest opportunity to learn anything of 
their people, or the causes of the disaffection so 
generally prevalent. Traditions abound, but they 
are generally on sectarian hnes, and theological 
bitterness, the worst of all, is usually added to 
political. 



10 INTRODUCTION TO CANADIAN EDITION. 

The Story that follows will be found real his- • 
tory, the history of our own times. Every page 
will revive the memory of the stirring scenes of 
the last decade or two, and as a panoramic vision 
will fix in the mind the cause of events that had 
well-nigh passed from us forever. 

This work will be found exceedingly oppor- 
tune. Mr. Gladstone's bill for Home Rule in 
Ireland has been defeated at Westminster, and 
again by the people of England, because, as we 
verily believe, it was not understood by the Brit- 
ish people, while it was grossly misrepresentecl 
by those whose interests are at war with the 
enlargement of popular rights. 

The following pages will show the emptiness 
and absurdity of the war cries of the late conflict 
— "The Empire in Danger,"' "The Union in Dan- 
ger," "Protestantism in Danger" — all echoes of 
the Disestablishment Conflict of 1868, the recol- 
lections of which ought to have taught the pseudo- 
prophets wisdom and moderation. There never 
was a measure more grossly caricatured than the 
late bill for the relief of Ireland. It was all in 
vain that the leaders of Irish thought had declared 
both with pen and voice that " the proposed Irish 
Parliament would bear the same relation to the 
Parliament at Westminster that the Legislature 
and Senate of every American State bear to the 
head authority of the Congress in the capitol at 
Washington." All that relates to local business it 



INTRODUCTION TO CANADIAN EDITION. H 

was proposed to delegate to the Irish Assembly; 
all questions of imperial policy were still to be 
left to the imperial government. It was all in 
vain that the acknowledgfed Irish leader, Mr. Par- 
nell, declared in the closing debate that the Irish 
people were content to have a Parliament wholly 
subordinate to the imperial Parliament ; that they 
did not expect a Parliament like Grattan's, which 
possessed co-ordinate powers. The words of 
some outraged exile in America or Australia fur- 
nished a sufficient pretext for the ungenerous but 
characteristic vote that followed. 

In this great struggle I am thoroughly in sym- 
pathy with my country. With the historian Lecky 
I believe that "the Home Rule theory is within the 
limits of the Constitution and supported by 
means that are perfectly loyal and legitimate." 
The British Colonies have secured it, and it is 
not too much to say that the bond of union be- 
tween the Colonies and the Empire depends on 
its existence. Canadian opposition to Home 
Rule would seem to show that the denial of the 
boon implies also the rejection of the Golden 
Rule. 

That permanent peace will ever come to Ire- 
land without it no sane man expects. No foreign 
power can govern Ireland. The experiment has 
surely been tried long enough. The unconquer- 
able spirit possessed so fully by the larger island 
is no less developed in Ireland. The spirit of 



]2 INTRODUCTION TO CANADIAN EDITION. 

the age only strengthens the spirit of indepen- 
dence, while the millions of her children on this side 
the Adantic tell her that Home Rule Is the only 
reasonable rule for freemen. 

Ireland needs rest. For a long dine she has 
been under terrible provocation, and has suffered 
as no other country in Europe. Slie looks 
around for sympathy, and h Is not wanting. But 
what she needs most is equitable, yea, generous 
treatment at the hands of England. These 
pages will show that her poverty is largely the 
result of misgovernment. England needs the 
tranquillity of Ireland as much as Ireland herself 
does. Let Ireland be assured that her rights 
are to be sacredly respected ; that her wrongs are 
to be redressed by England, not grudgingly nor 
of necessity ; that the elevation and comfort of 
her down-trodden children is to be considered 
a more pressing subject of legislation than the 
claims of an independent and irresponsible no- 
bility. She has given her Burkes, her Welling- 
tons, her Dufferlns and her Tyndalls to enrich the 
Empire. Let her be told to call her children to 
the development of her own resources and the 
improvement of her own polity. Order will 
then soon come from chaos, and lieht from her 
sadly prolonged darkness, and the days of her 
mourning will soon be ended. 

Thoroughly sadsfied that a generous policy on 
the part of England, not merely permitting, but 



INTRODUCTION TO CANADIAN EDITION. 13 

encouraging Home Rule, would give to my 
country peace, prosperity, and enthusiastic loyalty, 
I take my place with those who plead for a sep- 
arate Parliament for Ireland, as Illinois, Ohio, and 
California have separate Parliaments, but still 
allied to the Imperial Parliament on the principle 
that binds Illinois, Ohio, and California to the 
United States of America. Less than that should 
not be accepted. More has not been asked by 
any of the leaders sketched in this work. 

I commend the work to the reader not because 
I can endorse every sentence that it contains, or 
approve of all the details of operation therein, for 
I have not studied carefully every page. But I 
heartily approve of the object aimed at, and 
believing that the present struggle is the old con- 
test of monopoly against the common weal, or, as 
it has been aptly put recently, of " the classes 
against the masses," I promptly take my place 
with the latter, and claim for my countrymen a 
respectful hearing. 

As in all past struggles for the enlargement of 
British liberties the terms "loyal" and "disloyal" 
have been called into active service, so it is to-day, 
and " Unionists " and " Loyalists " are posing as 
the legitimate opponents of Home Rule. These 
pretensions and assumptions have been torn into 
tatters a thousand times, and are as meaningless 
when so used as the terms "orthodox" and 
"heterodox" among speculative theologians. 



14 INTRODUCTION TO CANADIAN EDITION. 

And as we scan the ranks of the men who on 
either side of the Atlantic are the self-constituted 
representatives of loyalty, and monopolize the 
term, we instinctively ask Risian teneatis ? Some, 
I admit, may honestly see in Home Rule the dis- 
memberment of the Empire and innumerable 
other evils. But I am firmly convinced that there 
are a thousand thousand good hearts and true, 
who, like myself, see in Home Rule and its con- 
comitant legislation not merely harmony and 
prosperity to Ireland, but an immeasurably 
brighter future and a more permanent stability 
to the British Empire. 

A. Burns. 




A. BURNS, D. D., LL. D. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

RT. HON. W. E. GLADSTONE {Steel) Froiitis/'iece. 

CHARLES STEWART PARNELL 5 

REV. DR. A. BURNS 15 

THOMAS POWER O'CONNOR 23 

MR. ISAAC BUTT — MR. J. G. BIGGAR 61 

RT. HON. JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN 95 

THE QUEEN'S SPEECH .Ji::^ loi 

LORD SPENCER — MR. TREVELVAN 113 

LORD R. CHURCHILL— LORD H.ARTINGTON i7.i 

MTCHAEITTJAVtTT::?.— -:777r..T7T.. 151 

REFUSING EXORBITANT RENT 165 

SCENE IN IRELAND-FARMER'S CABIN 173 

MEETING OF LAND LEAGUE COMMITTEE 185 

EVICTED-IiOMELESS 197 

DESTITUTION ON CLARE ISLAND 209 

THE OBNOXIOUS PROCESS-SERVER 215 

EVICTED— DRIVEN FROM THE HOUSE WE BUILT 227 

CELEBRATING MASS IN A CABIN 231 

LIFE IN IRELAND 239 

DESTITUTE FISHERMEN 245 

SOLICITING AID 251 

17 



Jg LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

GRATTAN'S PARLIAMENT 26q 

HENRY GRATTAN 277 

DRINKING HIS HONOR'S HEALTH 319 

DANIEL O'CONNELL 397 

GLADSTONES SPEECH 411 

JOHN DILLON — G.J. GOSCHEN 461 

NO RENT 485 

JOHN MORLEY-SIR W. V. HARCOURT 489 

LORD SALISBURY — MR. FORSTER 505 

T. M. HEALY — JUSTIN McCARTHY 527 

PATRICK EGAN— T. BRENNAN 533 

THOMAS SEXTON— W. H. O'SULLIVAN 555 

A. M. SULLIVAN — T. D. SULLIVAN 563 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Charles Stewart Parnell — His cliaracter for grip and grit — His talents 
— His appearance — His early life and education — His ancestry — 
Admiral Charles Stewart — Parnell's first tour in America — The 
Manchester Martyrs — Parnell's entrance into political life— Isaac 
Butt and the earlier movements for Home Rule — Parnell and 
Butt — Joseph Gillis Biggar — Enormous salaries paid to officials 
in Ireland — The policy of obstruction — Parnell's first speech in 
the House of Commons . . . . . . . •25 

CHAPTER II. 

The era of obstruction — The British House of Commons — Queen's 
speech — The vote on supplies — How obstruction helped Ire- 
land's cause — A happy hunting-ground — Flogging in the army — 
England's treatment of prisoners — The Mutiny Act — Making 
John Bull listen — The Transvaal bill — The Irish in England and 
Scotland — The Famine of 1879 — A crisis in Ireland's history — 
Mr. Butt's defects as a leader — Michael Davitt — The story of his 
early years — A Fenian movement — Davitt in prison — A ticket- 
of-leave — Irish-American organisations — Land League — " The 

T^Mi" ^\ 

CHAPTER in. 

The land war — The struggle of seven centuries — Illustrations from 
Irish history — Coin and livery — The wars under the Tudor dy- 
nasty — Feudal tenure — The Munster undertakers — The settle- 
ment of Ulster — The Commission of Inquiry — The perfidy of the 
Stuarts — Cromwell in Ireland — William HI., Sarsfield, Limer- 
ick, and the Penal Code 184 

19 



20 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

The destruction of Irisli industries — An alien proprietary — English 
legislation for many years directed against Ireland's prosperity — 
Interference with Irish trade — The depopulation of the land — 
Woollen manufactures crushed out — Blow after blow dealt at 
nascent industries — Lord Dufferin on English jealousy of Ireland 
— Rack-renting, eviction and legalized robbery — Cruelties of the 
landlords — Dean Swift's pictures of Ireland in the eighteenth 
century — Beggary and starvation 235 

CHAPTER V. 

The story of Irish Parliament — Poyning's law — Molyneux's " Case 
of Ireland Stated " — Wood's Half- Pence — The condition of 
Catholics — The corruptions of the Anglo-Irish Parliament — The 
Irish Volunteers — The convention at Dungarvan — Grattan's 
Declaration of Rights — An independent Irish Parliament — Its 
happy effect on Irish industries and on business in general — 
Lord Fitzwilliam recalled — The rebellion of 1798 — Castlereagh 
— How the Union was brought about ..... 257 

CHAPTER VI. 

After the Union — Ireland heavily taxed for England's benefit — 
Shameful injustice — The degradation of the tenantry — Absentee- 
ism — Wholesale eviction — Coercion acts — Worse and worse — 
Wrong, poverty and hopeless misery — Catholic Emancipation — 
O'Connell the Liberator — The attitude of the Orange Tory party 
— O'Connell in Parliament 318 

CHAPTER VII. 

The great famine of 1845 — Only the culmination of evils — The pota- 
to-rot — The great struggle in England regarding the Corn-Laws 
— Protection versus Free Trade — Peel and repeal — Lord John 
Russell — His criminally stupid Irish policy and its bitter conse- 
quences — Tenant right the only remedy for Ireland's woes — Co- 
ercion as a cure for famine — The awful disasters of 1845 ^"'^ 
1847 — Foolish doctrinaire policy of Russell — The Labor Rate 
act — The Fever — The Soup Kitchen act — Emigration — Death 
of O'Connell — Young Ireland — John Mitchel and Smith O'Brien 
— Great Britain the unchecked mistress of Ireland . . 362 



CONTENTS. 21 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Resurrection — 'I'hc Fenian movement — Gladstone's mental and moral 
characteristics — I'lie disestablishment of the Irish Church — The 
Land bill of 1870, and its fatal defects — The Home Rule 
movement orifjinaliy started by I'rotestants— The Home Rule 
Association — A complete change of policy — No favors to be 
asked or accepted from either great English party . . • 43 1 

CHAPTER IX. 

The old fight again — The crisis of 1879 — ^^^ election of Mr. Par- 
nell as chairman of the Irish parly — Defects of Mr. Shav/ as a 
political leader — The leaders decide to remain in opposition to 
both Englisii parties — Mr. Shaw's friends sell themselves for 
place and pay — The hopeless differences between the Irish party 
and the English Liberals — Parnell's platform for settling the 
Irish land problem — English incapacity to deal with Irish ques- 
tions — The Disturbance Bill — Forster — Irish outrages — Irish 
members suspended and ordered to leave the House — Land Bill 
of 1881 — NoReiit cry 452 

CHAPTER X. 

In the depths — Merciless war between the Irish people and the au- 
thorities — Forster and Clifford Lloyd — " Harvey Duff" — Par- 
nell imprisoned — Parnell triumphant — The Phoenix Park mur- 
ders — Conservative rule and its benefits — Gladstone's new move- 
ment for conceding Home Rule — The situation in January, 
1886 . . . 487 

CHAPTER XL 

The great Home Rule debate of 1886 — Gladstone, the Grand Old 
Man — His ai)pearance — His qualities of mind and heart — John 
Morley — Joseph Chamljerlain — Mr. Goschen — Hartington — Sal- 
isbury — Churchill — Justin McCarthy — Thomas Sexton — Arthur 
O'Connor — Timothy Daniel Sullivan — James O'Kelly — Hli sin- 
gular and checkered career as soldier, journalist, politician and 
parliamentarian — John Dillon — Edmund Leamy — E. D. Gray — 
T. M. Healy— William O'Brien— J. E. Redmond— T. Harring- 
ton — The Liberal Parliament of 1886 — Gladstone's grand sp'jech 
— The debate — Hope again deferred. ..... 508 

2 



22 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XII. 

The appeal to the country — Gladstone's popularity with the masses — 
His brilliant campaign in Scotland — Splendid receptions at Man- 
chester, Liverpool, and elsewhere — Anti-Gladstonian efforts of 
Hartington, Chamberlain, Goschen, Churchill, Trevelyan and 
Bright — The Primrose League — The attitude of the agricultural 
laborer and the farmer — The democracy almost unanimously 
friendly to Ireland — The result of the midsummer elections of 
1886 — Ireland not crushed — The revival of hope — Belfast riots 
— The outlooic to-day ........ 6of 




,0£±^ 



% 



HON 1 V O CONNOR M P 



CHAPTER I. 

CHARLES STEWART PARNELL. 

GRIP and grit : in these two words are told 
the secret of Mr, Parnell's marvellous 
success and marvellous hold over men. When 
once he has made up his mind to a thing he is 
inflexible ; immovable by affection or fear or 
reasoning. He knows what he wants, and he is 
resolved to have it. Throughout his career he 
has often had to make bargains ; he has never yet 
been known to make one in which he gave up a 
single iota which he could hold. But it takes 
time before one discovers these qualities. In 
ordinary circumstances Mr. Parnell is apparently 
the most easy-going of men. Though he is not 
emotional or effusive, he is genial and unaffected 
to a degree ; listens to all coiners with an air of 
real deference, especially if they be good talkers ; 
and apparently allows himself to follow implicitly 
the guidance of those who are speaking to him. 
He is for this reason one of the most agreeable 
of companions, never raising any difficulties about 
trifles, ready to subject his will and his conven- 
ience to that of others ; amiable, unpretending, a 

(25) 



26 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

Splendid listener, a delightful host. But all the 
softness and the pliancy disappear when the 
moment comes for decisive action. After days 
of apparent wavering, he suddenly becomes 
granite. His. decision is taken, and once taken 
is irrevocable. He goes right on to the end, 
whatever it may be. In some respects, indeed, 
he bears a singular resemblance to General 
Grant; he has his council of war, and nobody 
could be a more patient or more respectful lis- 
tener, and, ordinarily, nobody more ready to have 
his thinking done for him by others. But when 
affairs reach a great climax, it is his own judg- 
ment upon which he acts, and upon that alone, 

Mr. Parnell has not a large gift of expression. 
He hates public speaking, and avoids a crowd 
with a nervousness that sometimes appears almost 
feminine. He likes to steal through crowded 
streets in a long, heavy Ulster and a small 
smoking-cap that effectually conceal his identity, 
and when he is in Ireland is only happy when the 
quietness of Avondale secludes him from all eyes 
but those of a few intimates. From his want of 
any love of expressing himself, it often happens 
that he leaves a poor impression on those who 
meet him casually. More than one man has 
thought that he was little better than a simpleton, 
and their mangled reputations strew the path over 
which the Juggernaut of Parnell's fortunes and 
genius has mercilessly passed. He is incapable 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 27 

of giving the secret of his power, or of explaining 
the reasons of his decisions. He judges wisely, 
with instinctive wisdom, just as Millais paints ; he 
is always politically right, because, so to speak, he 
cannot help it. This want of any great power 
and any great desire to expose the line of reason- 
ing by which he has reached his conclusions has 
often exposed Parnell to misunderstandings and 
strong differences of opinion even with those who 
respect and admire him. The invariable result is 
that, when time has passed, those who have dif- 
fered from him admit that they were wrong and 
he right, and once more have a fatalistic belief in 
his sagacity. Often he does not speak for days 
to any of his friends, and is seldom even seen by 
them. He knows the enormous advantage some- 
times of pulling wires from an invisible point. 
During this absence his friends occasionally fret 
and fume and wonder whether he knows every- 
thing that is going on ; and, when their impatience 
has reached its climax, Parnell appears, and lo ! a 
great combination has been successfully laid, and 
the Irish are within the citadel of some time- 
honored and apparently immortal wrong. Simi- 
larly it is with Parnell's nerve. In ordinary times 
he occasionally appears nervous and fretful and 
pessimistic; in the hour of crisis he is calm, gay, 
certain of victory, with the fanaticism of a Mussul- 
man, unconscious of danger, with a blindness half 
boyish, half divine. 



28 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

Mr. Parnell is not a man of large literary 
reading, but he is a severe and constant student 
of scientific subjects, and is especially devoted to 
mechanics. It is one of his amusements to isolate 
himself from the enthusiastic crowds that meet 
him everywhere in Ireland, and, in a room by 
himself, to find delight in mathematical books. 
He is a constant reader of engineering and other 
mechanical papers, and he takes the keenest in- 
terest in machinery. It is characteristic of the 
modesty and, at the same time, scornfulness of his 
nature, that all through the many attacks made 
upon him by gentlemen who wear their hearts 
upon their sleeves, he has never once made allusion 
to his own strong love of animals ; but to his 
friends he often expressed his disgust for the 
outrages that, during a portion of the agitation in 
Ireland, were occasionally committed upon them. 
He did not express these sentiments in public, 
for the good reason that he regarded the outcry 
raised by some of the Radicals as part of the 
gospel of cant for which that section of the 
Liberal party is especially distinguished. To 
hear a man like Mr. Forster refusing a word of 
sympathy, in one breath, for whole housefuls of 
human beings turned out by a felonious landlord 
to die by the roadside, and, in the next, demanding 
the suppression of the liberties of a nation be- 
cause half-a-dozen of cattle had their tails cut off; 
to see the same men who howled in delight be- 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 29 

cause tlie apostle of a great humane movement, 
like Mr. Davitt, had been sent to the horrors of 
penal servitude, shuddering over the ill-usage of 
a horse, was quite enough to make even the most 
humane man regard this professed love of an- 
imals as but another item in the grrand total of 
their hypocrisy. Mr. Parnell regards the lives of 
human beings as more sacred than even those of 
animals, and he is consistent in his hatred of op- 
pression and cruelty wherever they may be found. 
His sympathies are with the fights of freedom 
everywhere, and he often spoke in the strongest 
terms of his disgust for the butcheries in the 
Soudan, which the Liberals, who wept over Irish 
horses, and Irish cows, received with such Olym- 
pian calm. In 1867 the ideas that had been sown 
in his mind in childhood first began to mature. 
His mother was then, as probably throughout her 
life, a strong Nationalist, and so was at least one 
of his sisters. Thus Mr. Parnell, in entering upon 
political life, was reaching the natural sequel of 
his own descent, of his early training, of the 
strongest tendencies of his own nature. It is 
not easy to describe the mental life of a man who 
is neither expansive nor introspective. It is one 
of the strongest and most curious peculiarities 
of Mr. Parnell, not merely that he rarely, if ever, 
speaks of himself, but that he rarely, if ever, 
gives any Indication of having studied himself. 
His mind, if one may use the jargon of the 



30 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

Germans, is purely objective. There are few 
men who, after a certain length of acquaintance, 
do not familiarize you with the state of their 
hearts or their stomachs or their finances ; with 
their fears, their hopes, their aims. But no man 
has ever been a confidant of Mr. Parnell. Any 
allusion to himself by another, either in the exu- 
berance of friendship or the design of flattery, 
is passed by unheeded ; and it is a joke among 
his intimates that to Mr. Parnell the being 
Parnell does not exist. 
(^ It is plain from the facts we have narrated 
that Parnell's great strength is one which lies in 
his character rather than in his attainments.' Yet 
his wonderful successes won in the face of nu- 
merous and most bitter opponents testify to 
mental abilides of a very high order. Mr. Glad- 
stone has said of him, " No man, as far as I can 
judge, is more successful than the hon. member 
in doing that which it is commonly supposed that 
all speakers do, but which in my opinion few 
really do — and I do not include myself among 
those few — namely, in saying what he means to 
say." Mr. Parnell is moreover very strong in 
not saying the thing which should not be said. 
Too many of his countrymen, it may be safely as- 
serted, are of that hasty and impulsive tem- 
perament which may betray, by a word prema- 
turely spoken, some point which should have been 
held from the enemy, and which might easily 



TilE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 31 

have been made, at some later time, a stronghold 
of defence in the parliamentary contest. Mr. 
Parnell has few qualities which have hitherto 
been associated with the idea of a successful Irish 
leader. He has now become one of the most 
potent of parliamentary debaters in the House of 
Commons, through his thorough grasp of his 
own ideas and throuo-h his exact knowledge of 
the needs of his country. But Mr. Parnell has be- 
come this in spite of himself He retains to this 
day, as we hg.ve before stated, an almost invin- 
cible repugnance to public speaking ; if he can, 
through any excuse, be silent, he remains silent, 
and the want of all training^ before his entrance 
into political life made him, at first, a speaker 
more than usually stumbling. His complete suc- 
cess in overcoming, not indeed his natural ob- 
jection to public speaking, but the difficulty with 
which his first speeches were marked, affords one 
of the many proofs of his wonderful strength and 
singleness of purpose. It is not a little re- 
markable that his first successful speech was crit- 
icised for its vehemence and bitterness of tone, 
and for the shrillness and excessive effort of the 
speaker's voice. It seems probable that the 
embarrassing circumstances of his position while 
addressing an unsympathizing body of legislators, 
combined with a sense of his own inexperience, 
may have produced the appearance of excessive 
vehemence of manner. 



32 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

Nature has stamped on the person of this re- 
markable man the qualities of his mind and tem- 
perament. His face is singularly handsome, and 
at a first glance might even appear too delicate 
to be strone. The nose is longf and thin and 
carved, not moulded; the mouth is well cut; the 
cheeks are pallid; the forehead perfectly round, 
as round and as striking as the forehead of the 
first Napoleon ; and the eyes are dark and un- 
fathomable. The passer-by in the streets, taking 
a casual look at those beautifully chiselled 
features and at the air of perfect tranquillity, 
would be inclined to think that Mr. Parnell was a 
very handsome young man, who probably had 
graduated at West Point, and would in due time 
die in a skirmish with the Indians. But a closer 
look would show the great possibilides beneath 
this face. The mouth, especially the under lip, 
speaks of a grip that never loosens ; the eye, 
when it is fixed, tells of the inflexible will be- 
neath ; and the tranquillity of the expression is 
the tranquillity of the nature that wills and wins. 
Similarly with his figure. It looks slight almost 
to frailty ; but a glance will show that the bones 
are large, the hips broad, and the walk firm ; in 
fact, Mr, Parnell tramps the ground rather than 
walks. The hands are firm, and even the way 
they grasp a pencil has a significance. 

This picture of Parnell is very unlike the por- 
traits which have been formed of him by the 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 33 

imagination of those who have never met him. 
When he was first in the storm and stress of the 
era of obstruction, he used to be portrayed in the 
truthful pages of EngHsh comic journalism with a 
battered hat, a long upper lip, a shilielah in his 
hand, a clay pipe in his caubeen. Even to this 
day portraits after this fashion appear in the 
lower-class journals that think the caricature of 
the Irish face the best of all possible jokes. Par- 
nell is passionately fond of Ireland ; is happier 
and healthier on its soil than in any other part of 
the world, and is almost bigoted in the intensity 
of his patriotism. But he might easily be taken 
for a native of another country. Residence for 
the first years of his life in English schools has 
given him a strong English accent and an essen- 
tially English manner ; and from his American 
mother he has got, in all probability, the healthy 
pallor, the delicate chiselling, the impassive look, 
and the resolute eye that are typical of the chil- 
dren of the great Republic. 

Such is the man in brief who to-day is perhaps 
the most potent personality in all the many na- 
tions and many races of the earth. The Russian 
Czar rules wider domains and more subjects; but 
his sway has to be backed by more than a million 
armed men, and he passes much of his time shiv- 
ering before the prospect of a sudden and awful 
death at the hands of the infuriated among his 
own people. The German is a more multitudi- 



34 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

nous race than the Irish and almost as widely 
scattered ; but Bismarck requires also the protec- 
tion of a mighty army and of cruel coercion laws, 
and the German who leaves the Fatherland re- 
gards with abhorrence the political ideas with 
which Bismarck is proud to associate his name. 
Gladstone exercises an almost unparalleled sway 
over the minds, hearts, imaginations of English- 
men ; but nearly one-half of his people regard 
him as the incarnation of all evil ; and shallow- 
pated lieutenants, great only in self-conceit, dare 
to beard and defy and flout him. But Parnell has 
not one solitary soldier at his command ; the jail 
has opened for him and not for his enemies, and 
except for a miserable minority he is adored by 
all the Irish at home, and adored even more fer- 
vently by the Irish who will never see — in some 
cases who have never seen — the shores of the 
Green Isle again. In one way or another, 
throuo-h intermixture with the blood of other 
peoples, the Irish race can lay claim to some 
twenty millions of the human race. Out of all 
these twenty millions the people who do not re- 
gard Parnell as their leader may be counted by 
the few hundreds of thousands. In cities sepa- 
rated from his home or place of nativity by oceans 
and continents, men meet at his command, and 
spill their money for the cause he recommends. 
Meetings called under his auspices gather daily 
in every one of the vast States of America, in 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 35 

Canada, in Cape Colony; and the primeval woods 
of Australia have echoed to the cheers for his 
name. But this is but a superficial view of his 
power, A nation, under his guidance, has shed 
many of its traditional weaknesses; from being im- 
pulsive has grown cool and calculating ; from being 
disunited and discordant has welded itself into 
iron bands of discipline and solidarity. In a race 
scattered over every variety of clime and soil and 
government, and in every stratum of the social 
scale from the lowest to the highest, there are 
men of every variety of character and occupation 
and opinion. In other times the hatred of these 
men over their differences of method was more 
bitter than their hatred for the common enemy 
who loathed alike their ends and their means. 
Now they all alike sink into equality of agree- 
ment before the potent name of Parnell, high and 
low, timid and daring, moderate and extreme. 
Republics change their Presidents, colonies their 
governors and ministers ; in England now it is 
Gladstone and now it is Salisbury that rules; but 
Parnell remains stable and immovable, the apex 
of a pyramid that stretches invisible over many 
lands and seas, as resistless apparently as fate, 
solid as granite, durable as time. 

.It was many years before the world had any 
idea of this new and potent force that was coming 
into its councils and affairs. Charles Stewart 
Parnell was born in June, 1846. He is descended 



36 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

from a family that had long been associated with 
the political life of Ireland. The family came 
originally from Congleton, in Cheshire; but like 
so many others of English origin had in time 
proved its right to the proud boast of being 
Hibernior Hibeniis ipsis. So far back as the 
beginning of the last century a Parnell sat for an 
Irish constituency in the Irish Parliament. At the 
time of the Union a Parnell held high office, and 
was one of those who ofave the most substantial 
proof of the reality of his love for the independ- 
ence of his country. Sir John Parnell at the 
time was Chancellor of the Exchequer and had 
held the office for no less than seventeen years. 
It was one of the vices of the old Irish Parliament 
even in the days after Grattan had attained com- 
parative freedom in 1782 that the Ministers were 
creatures of the Crown and not responsible to and 
removable by the Parliament of which they were 
members. There was everything, then, in these 
years of service as a representative of the Crown 
to have transformed Sir John Parnell into a time- 
serving and corrupt courtier. But Sir John Bar- 
ington, the best known chronicler of the days of 
the Irish Union, describes Sir John Parnell in his 
list of contemporary Irishmen as "Incorruptible;" 
and " Incorruptible " he proved ; for he resigned 
office and resisted the Act of Union to the bitter 
end. A son of Sir John Parnell — Henry Parnell 
— was afterwards for many years a prominent 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 37 

member of the British ParHament, became a Cab- 
inet Minister, and was ultimately raised to the 
Peerage as the first Baron Congleton. John 
Henry Parnell was a grandson of Sir John Parnell. 
In his younger days he went on a tour through 
America ; there met Miss Stewart, the daughter 
of Commodore Stewart ; fell in love with her, and 
was married in Broadway. It is unnecessary to 
speak to Americans of the immortal " Old Iron- 
sides," Suffice it to say that the bravery, calm- 
ness, and strength of will which were characteris- 
tic of the brave commander of the "Constitution" 
are inherited by his grandson, the bearer of his 
name ; for the full name of Mr. Parnell, as is 
known, is " Charles Stewart Parnell." There was 
also somethine sio-nificant in the fact that the man 
who was destined to prove the most potent foe 
of British misrule in Ireland should have drawn 
his blood on the mother's side from a captain who 
was one of the few men that ever brought humili- 
ation on the proud mistress of the seas. 

While Commodore Charles Stewart was in 
command of that famous frigate the " Constitu- 
tion," in the war between England and America 
in 1 815, he met, fought, beat and captured the two 
English vessels — the " Cyane " and the " Levant " 
— with the loss of seventy-seven killed and 
wounded among the British, and only three killed 
and ten wounded in his own vessel. It is note- 
worthy that he did not enter upon this engage- 



38 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

ment until first attacked, for he had received 
from a British vessel, three days before the en- 
gagement, a copy of the London Times, contain- 
ing the heads of the Treaty of Ghent, as signed 
by the Ministers of the United States and Great 
Britain, and said to have been ratified by the 
Prince Regent. After a series of striking adven- 
tures Stewart reached home with his vessel. His 
victory excited extreme enthusiasm among the 
Americans, and every form of public honor was 
bestowed upon him. In Boston there was a tri- 
umphant procession ; in New York the City 
Council presented him with the freedom of the 
city and a gold snuff-box, and he and his officers 
were entertained at a dinner; in Pennsylvania he 
was voted the thanks of the Commonwealth, and 
presented with a gold-hilted sword. Congress 
passed a vote of thanks to him and his officers, 
and struck a gold medal and presented it to him 
in honor of the victory. 

Commodore Stewart was afterwards sent to the 
Mediterranean, where there was som.ething ap- 
proaching a mutiny amongst the officers under a 
different commodore. He soon came to a definite 
issue with his subordinates. He ordered a court- 
martial on a marine to be held on board one of 
his vessels. The officers preferred to discuss the 
case at their leisure in a hotel in Naples, and there 
tried and convicted the marine. The Commodore 
promptly quashed the conviction, and, when the 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 39 

court passed a series of resolutions, put all the 
commanding officers of the squadron under ar- 
rest. The result was the complete restoration 
of order and the approval of Commodore Stew- 
art's conduct by the President. 

Admiral Stewart lived to a orreat ao-e, and in 
time took a very high place in the affections of 
his countrymen. He used to be known as "old 
Ironsides," a name better known as the popular 
appellation of the frigate " Constitution," which he 
had commanded with such distinction, and the 
residence which he purchased at Bordentown, 
N. J., vi'as, in spite of himself, baptized "Ironsides 
Park." He was once prominently spoken of as a 
candidate for the Presidency, and, in less than four 
months, sixty-seven newspapers pronounced in his 
favor. But the project did not receive his sanc- 
tion ; he gave it no countenance; he would not 
even discuss it; he was " unusually nervous and 
fidgety" during the agitation of the subject; and 
at length its promoters were impelled to give it 
up. He regained his usual equanimity only when 
his name ceased to be bandied about by the 
political press. 

He was eighty-three years of age when Fort 
Sumter was fired upon. At once he wrote asking 
to be put into active service: "I am as young as 
ever," he declared, "to fight for my country." 
But of course the offer had to be refused. He 
survived nine years, and suffered very severely 
towards the end of his life. 
3 



40 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

Commodore Stewart was about five, feet nine 
inches high, and of a dignified and engaging 
presence. His complexion was fair, his hair 
chestnut, eyes blue, large, penetrating and intelli- 
o-ent. The cast of his countenance was Roman, 
bold, strong, and commanding, and his head finely 
formed. His control over his passions was truly 
surprising, and under the most irritating circum- 
stance his oldest seaman never saw a ray of anger 
flash from his eye. His kindness, benevolence, 
and humanity were proverbial, but his sense of 
justice and the requisitions of duty were as un- 
bending as fate. In the moment of greatest 
stress and danger he was as cool and quick in 
judgment as he was utterly ignorant of fear. 
His mind was acute and powerful, grasping the 
greatest or smallest subjects with the intuitive 
mastery of genius. 

It is said that, in many respects, Mr. Parnell 
bears a strone resemblance in his characteristics 
to the grandfather whose name he bears. In 
physique he is much less English or Irish than 
American. The delicacy of his features, the pal- 
lor of complexion, the strong nervous and mus- 
cular system, concealed under an exterior of fra- 
gility, are characteristics of the American type of 
man. Mentally, also, his evenness of temper and 
coolness of judgment, as well as the singular 
boldness and independence of his course in Par- 
liament, suggest an American temperament. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 41 

Mr. Parnell has been obliged, we may say, to 
conquer his now well-assured place in the con- 
fidence and affection of the Irish people. By 
birth a member of the landlord caste, a supporter 
of a religious body disliked most heartily by the 
masses of the Irish peasantry, altogether un-Irish 
in manner and voice, it is a proof of the quickness 
of insight, and the real generosity of the people, 
that they so soon were able and willing to assign 
him his true place as their political leader. 

It may be said, however, that throughout a large 
part of Ireland the family name of Mr. Parnell 
was, to some small extent, a card in his favor. 
The poet Thomas Parnell, one of the wits of 
Queen Anne's reign, was always estimated more 
nearly at his real literary value in Ireland than in 
England. He was, it is true, an easy-going 
Protestant parson and a notorious place-hunter; 
but his genial wit and fine talents helped him to 
favor with the reading portions of the Irish 
people. 

The young Parnell, chiefly because he was a 
delicate child, was sent to various schools in 
England during his boyhood, and finally went to 
Cambridge University — the university of his 
father. Here he stayed for a couple of years, and 
for a considerable time thought of becoming a 
lawyer. But he changed his purpose, with a 
regret that sometimes even in these days of 
supreme political glory finds wistful expression. 



42 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

For Parnell is one of the men to whom political 
glory has not brought any particular joy. Though 
he has, in face of difficulty, extraordinary self- 
confidence, the basis of his nature is diffident. He 
used to say often in the lifetime of his sister, Fanny 
Parnell — a girl of great poetical and literary 
power — that the women in his family always had 
the larger share of the brains ; and once, when an 
article written by Fanny Parnell was attributed to 
her brother, he expressed surprise that anybody 
should have thought him capable of having writ- 
ten so well. Nor is he a man whom the pomp 
of power blinds or dazzles. I have seen him at a 
demonstration in his own constituency of Cork, 
where miles of streets were covered with multi- 
tudinous masses ready to fall at his feet, and his 
face was almost as unmoved as if he were the 
humblest and most unconcerned actor in the 
whole day's business. I was once telling him of 
a visit Senator Jones, of Florida, had paid to Bal- 
briggan — the small town outside Dublin which 
the Senator had left many years before an humble 
boy. I was drawing a contrast between the hope- 
lessness of Mr. Jones's early life and the splen- 
dor of his position as a Senator of the greatest 
country in the world. " I wonder," said Mr. Par- 
nell, "is he any the happier?" And thus some- 
times he reflects that perhaps it would have been 
better for him that he had pursued his law-course, 
and was unknown outside the musty limits of the 
Court of Chancery. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 43 

Almost immediately after his years at Cam- 
bridg-e he went abroad for a tour; and Hke his 
father he chose America as the first place to visit. 
While travelling through Georgia — where his 
brother has now a great peach-orchard — he met 
with a railway accident. He escaped unhurt; 
but John, his elder brother, was injured; and 
John says to this day that he never had so good 
a nurse as "Charley." Then Mr. Parnell came 
back to his home in Avondale, County Wicklow, 
and gave himself up to the occupations and 
amusements of a country gentleman. At this time 
he was known as a reticent and rather retirino- 
young man. He must have had his opinions 
though; for he was brought up in a strongly 
political environment. Probably owing to her 
father's blood Mrs. Parnell had always a lively 
sympathy with the rebels against British oppres- 
sion In Ireland, She had a house in Dublin at 
the time when the ranks of Fenianism had been 
descended upon by the government ; and when 
in Green Street Court-house, with the aid of in- 
formers, packed juries, and partisan judges, the 
desperate soldiers of Ireland's cause were being 
consigned in quick and regular succession to the 
living death of penal servitude. There were in 
various parts of the city fugitives from what was 
called in these days justice ; and among the places 
where most of these fugitives found a temporary 
asylum and ultimately a safe flight to freer lands 



44 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

and till better clays was the house of Mrs, Parnell. 
Fanny Parnell is also one of the family figures 
that played a larg-e part in the creation of the 
opinions of her brother. At an early age she 
showed her poetic talents ; and from the first 
these talents were devoted to the description of 
the sufferings of Ireland and to appeals to her 
sons to rise aijainst Ireland's wrontrs. When the 
Fenian movement was in its full strength it had 
an organ in Dublin called The Irish People ; and 
into the office of The Irish People Fanny Parnell 
stole often with a patriotic poem. 

In the midst of these surroundings came the 
news of the execution of the Manchester Martyrs. 
The effect of that event upon the people of Ire- 
land was extraordinary. The three men hanged 
had taken part in the rescue of two prominent 
Fenian soldiers. In the scrimmage a policeman, 
Sergeant Brett, had been accidentally killed, and 
for this accidental death several men were put on 
their trial for murder. The trial took place in 
one of the periodical outbursts of fury which un- 
happily used to take place between England and 
Ireland. The juries were prejudiced, the judges 
not too calm, and the evidence far from trust- 
worthy. Three men — Allen, Larkin, and O'Brien 
— were sentenced to death. Though many hu- 
mane Englishmen pleaded for mercy, the law was 
allowed to take its course, and Allen, Larkin, and 
O'Brien were executed. A wild cry of hate and 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 45 

sorrow rose from Ireland. In every town multi- 
tudes of men walked in funeral procession, and to 
this day the poem of " God Save Ireland," which 
commemorates the memory of Allen, Larkin, and 
O'Brien, is the most popular of Irish songs. 

To anybody acquainted with the nature of Mr. 
Parnell it will be easy to understand the effect 
which such a tragedy would have upon his mind. 
If there be one quality more developed than an- 
other in his nature it is a hatred of cruelty. 
When he was a magistrate he had brought before 
him a man charged with cruelty to a donkey. 
Fanny Parnell was the person who had the man 
rendered up to justice, and her brother strongly 
sympathized with her efforts. The man was con- 
victed, and was sentenced to pay a fine of thirty 
shillines. The miscreant mio^ht as well have been 
asked to pay the national debt, and the fine was a 
sentence of prolonged imprisonment. The sequel 
of the story is characteristic of the family. Miss 
Parnell herself paid the fine and released the ruf- 
fian. It was his strong sympathy with suffering 
and his hatred of cruelty that first impelled Mr. 
Parnell to lead the crusade against the use of the 
odious lash in the British army and navy. So 
deep, indeed, is his abhorrence of cruelty aiul 
even of bloodshed, that he is strongly opposed to 
capital punishment; and once, when one of his 
colleagues voted against a motion condemnatory 
of capital punishment in the House of Commons, he 



46 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

expressed the hope, half joke, whole earnest, that 
some day that colleague might be taught a lesson 
by being himself hanged as a rebel. The Man- 
chester tragedy then touched Parnell in his most 
tender point, and from that time forward he was 
an enemy of English domination in Ireland. 

But he seemed to be in no hurry to put his 
convictions into action. He is not a man of ex- 
uberant enjoyment of life. He has too little 
imagination and too much equability for ecstasies, 
but he enjoys the hour, has many and varied in- 
terests in life, and could never, by any possibility, 
sink to a slothful or a melancholy dreamer. His 
proud and self-respecting nature, too, saved him 
from any tendency towards that wretched and 
squalid viclousness which is the characteristic of 
so many landlords' lives in Ireland. He is essen- 
tially temperate ; eats but plainly, and drinks 
nothing but a small quantity of claret. Nor could 
he descend to the pure horsiness which makes so 
many country gentlemen regard the stableman's 
as the highest of arts and pursuits, though he 
enjoys a ride, and is a good man after hounds. 
His Yankee blood, too, told ; and instead of 
spending his time in vice or idleness or dreams he 
devoted himself steadily to the development of 
the resources of his estate. He is to-day one of 
the best practical farmers in Ireland ; occasionally 
gives agricultural lessons with infinite patience to 
many of his colleagues who, though leaders of a 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 47 

ereat aerarian asfitation, are town-bred and are in 
the full flavor of urban ignorance. Then, too, 
Parnell has a o-reat deal of mechanical talent. 
He set up a saw-mill on his estate, and shaped the 
wood into brush-handles. Every VVicklow man is 
more or less infected with the same craze for 
mining as the natives of the State of Colorado ; 
and Parnell spent a good deal of his time and 
much of his money on mining experiments. He 
took his share, too, in the social duties which 
British society casts on the owners of the soil. 
He sat regularly as a magistrate, and he was 
elected a synodsman for his parish church. It is 
necessary here to explain that when the Irish 
Protestant Church was severed from its connec- 
tion with the state, it became a self-governing 
body, and thus Mr. Parnell was chosen by his fel- 
low-Protestants to be one of its rulers. It is well 
to add that to this day Parnell sends his annual 
subscription regularly to the support of his rector 
in the town of Rathdrum, and that he remains a 
believing member of the Protestant Church. 

One of the reasons why Mr. Parnell delayed 
his entrance into public life* was the state of Irish 
politics at that moment. There was little move- 
ment in the country of a constitutional character. 
The representation was in the hands ot knavish 
office-holders or office-seekers. The professions 
of political faith were so many lies, and the con- 
stituencies distrustful of all chance of relief from 



48 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

the Legislature, allowed themselves to be bought, 
that they might afterwards be sold. All that was 
earnest and enercretic and honest in Ireland 
sought relief for her misery in desperate enter- 
prises, or stood aside until better days and more 
auspicious stars. Then the landlords of the coun- 
try remained entirely, or almost entirely, aloof 
from the popular movements. With the single 
exception of the late Mr. George Henry Moore, 
the representation of Ireland was abandoned by 
the country gentlemen, who in other times had' 
occasionally rushed out of their own ranks and 
taken up the side of the people. It is a curious 
fact, but the man who, perhaps, had more influ- 
I ence than almost any other in bringing Mr. Par- 
■ nell into the arena of Irish nationality, has himself 
proved a recreant to the cause. 

In 1 87 1 was fought the Kerry election. This 
election marked one of the turning-points in the 
modern history of Ireland. During the Fenian 
trials Isaac Butt was the most prominent figure in 
defending the prisoners. He was a man who had- 
started life with great expectations and supreme 
talents. Before he w^s many years in Trinity 
College, Ireland's oldest university, he was a pro- 
fessor ; he had been only six years at the bar 
when he was made a Queen's counsel. He was 
the son of a Protestant rector of the North of Ire- 
land, and adhered for some years to the prejudices 
in which he had been reared. In his early days 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 49 

every good thing in Ireland belonged to the 
Protestants. The Catholics were an outlawed 
and alien race in their own country. O'Connell, 
not many years before, had carried Catholic 
emancipation, but Catholic emancipation was alive 
only in the letter. The offices — the judgeships, 
the fellowships in Trinity College, the shrievalties, 
everything of value or power — were still exclusive- 
ly in the hands of the Protestants. O'Connell, in 
1843, was so thoroughly sick and tired of vain ap- 
peals to the English Legislature that he resolved 
to start once again a demand for a native Irish 
Legislature. He opened the agitation by a de- 
bate in the Dublin Corporation, and Butt, who was 
a member of that body, though he was but a 
young man, was chosen by the Conservatives to 
oppose O'Connell, and delivered a speech so 
effective that O'Connell himself complimented his 
youthful opponent, and foretold the advent of a 
time when Butt himself would be among the ad- 
vocates instead of the opponents of an Irish Leg- 
islature. It was not till a quarter of a century 
afterward that this prophecy was realized. Butt, 
immediately after the Fenian trials, began an 
agitation for amnesty, and in this way gradually 
went forward to a primary place in the confidence 
and in the affections of his countrymen. There 
were still some people who believed in the power 
and the willingness of the English Parliament to 
redress all the wrongs of Ireland, and there was 



50 " GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

some justification for this faith in the fact that 
WilHam Ewart Gladstone was then at the head of 
the English state, and was passing the Disestab- 
lishment of the Irish Church, the Land Act of 
1870, and the Ballot Act, three measures which 
mark the renaissance of Irish nationality. But 
one of these very measures Isaac Butt was able 
to show was the very strongest proof of the neces- 
sity for an Irish Legislature. The Land Act of 
1870 is an act the defects of which have passed 
from the region of controversy. Mr. Gladstone 
himself offered the strongest proof of its break- 
down by proposing in 1881 an entirely different 
Land Act. In fact it would not be impossible to 
show that in some respects the Land Act of 1870 
aggravated instead of mitigated the evils of Irish 
land tenure. It put no restraint on the raising of 
rents, and rents were raised more mercilessly than 
ever; it impeded, but it did not arrest eviction ; it 
caused as much emigration from Ireland as ever. 
Yet all Ireland had unanimously demanded a dif- 
ferent bill. Mass-meetings all over the country 
had demonstrated the wish of the people, and ex- 
pectation had been wrought to a high point. The 
fruit of it all had been the haltinor and miserable 
measure of 1870. 

It was this fact that gave the farmers into the 
hands of Butt. The population of the towns was ' 
always ready to receive and to support any Na- 
tional leader who advocated an Irish Parliament; 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 5[ 

indeed there is scarcely a year since the Act of 
Union in 1800 when the overwhehiiing majority 
of tiie Irish people were not in favor of the resto- 
ration of an Irish Parliament. At that moment, 
too, another force was workin^^ in favor of a re- 
newed agitation for Home Rule. The Protestants 
were bitterly exasperated by the Disestablishment 
of the Irish Church. Some of the more extreme 
Orangemen had made the same threats then as 
they are making now, and, while professing the 
strongest loyalty to the Queen, had used lan- 
guage of vehement disloyalty. For instance, one 
Orange clergyman had declared that if the Queen 
should consent to the Disestablishment, the 
Orangemen would throw her crown into the 
Boyne, To the Irish Protestants Butt could ap- 
peal with more force than any other man. He 
was an Irish Protestant himself, brought up in 
their religious creed and in their political preju- 
dices. He made the appeal with success, and it 
was Irish Protestants that took the largest share 
in starting the great Irish movement of to-day. 
The Home Rule movement received definite form 
for the first time at a meeting in the Bilton Hotel 
on May 19, 1870. It was held in the Bilton 
Hotel in Sackville (now O'Connell) street, and 
among those wlio were present and took a promi- 
nent part were Isaac Butt, a Protestant; the Rev. 
Joseph Galbraith, a Protestant clergyman and a 
Fellow of Trinity College; Mr. Purdon, a Prot- 



52 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

estant, and then Conservative Lord Mayor of 
Dublin ; Mr. Kinahan, a Protestant, who had been 
High Sheriff of DubHn ; Major Knox, a Protes- 
tant, and the proprietor of the h'ish Times, the 
chief Conservative organ of Dublin, and finally 
Colonel King Harman, a Protestant, who has 
since gone over to the enemy and become one of 
the bitterest opponents of the movement which he 
was largely responsible in starting. 

It was a Protestant, too, that won a victory that 
was decisive. In 1871 there was a vacancy in the 
representation of the County of Kerry. At once 
the new movement resolved to make an appeal 
to the constituency in the name of the revived de- 
mand for the restoration of an Irish Parliament. 
The friends of Whiggery, on the other hand, 
were just as resolved that the old bad system 
should be defended vigorously. And this elec- 
tion at Kerry deserves to be gravely dwelt on by 
those who regard the present movement as a sec- 
tarian and a distinctly Catholic movement. The 
Whig candidate was a Catholic — Mr. James Ar- 
thur Dease, a man of property, of great intellect- 
ual powers, and of a stainless character ; and Mr. 
Dease was supported vehemently and passion- 
ately by Dr. Moriarty, the Catholic Bishop of the 
Diocese of Kerry. The Home Rule candidate on 
the other hand was a Protestant — Mr. Rowland 
Ponsonby Blennerhassett ; and he had but few ad- 
herents among the Catholic clergy of the diocese ; 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 53 

and the clergy who did support him fell under 
the displeasure of their bishop. The struggle 
was fought out with terrible energy and much 
bitterness ; the end was that the feeling of Na- 
tionality triumphed over all the influence of the 
British authorities and of the Catholic bishop, and 
Blennerhassett, the Protestant Home Rule candi- 
date, was returned. 

Blennerhassett belonged to the same class as 
Mr. Parnell. He was a landlord, a Protestant, and 
a Home Ruler. Mr. Parnell was a landlord, a 
Protestant, and a Home Ruler. The time had ap- 
parently come when constitutional agitation had a 
fair chance ; and when men of property who sym- 
pathized with the people would be welcomed into 
the National ranks. A few years after this came 
the general election of 1S74; and Mr. Parnell 
thought that his time of self-distrust and hesita- 
tion had passed ; and that he might put himself 
forward as a National candidate. But his chance 
was destroyed by a small teqhnicality of which 
the government took advantage. It is the cus- 
tom, in Ireland to appoint young men of station 
and property to the position of high sheriffs of 
the counties in which they live. The high sheriff 
cannot stand for the constituency in which he 
holds office unless he be permitted by the Crown 
to resign his office. Mr. Parnell applied for this 
permission and was refused. And thus in all 
probability he was unable to represent his native 



54 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

county in Parliament. But he had not long to 
wait. When a member of Parliament accepts 
office he has to resign his seat in the British 
Parliament and submit himself once more to the 
votes of his constituency. A Colonel Taylor, a 
veteran and rather stupid hack of the Tory party, 
was promoted by Mr. Disraeli to the position of 
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster — a well- 
paid sinecure — after many years service as one 
of the whips of the party. Colonel Taylor was 
member for County Dublin, He had to seek 
re-election on his appointment to the chancellor- 
ship ; and Mr. Parnell resolved to oppose him. 

The sequel of this part of the story of Mr. Par- 
nell I had better tell in the words of the late A. 
M. Sullivan : 

"Although it was a forlorn hope to fight the seat 
in the then condition of the Registry, the Home 
Rule Leaijue felt bound to contest it if a suitable 
candidate could be found. I was summoned one 
day to a private meeting of the Executive Coun- 
cil to consider the situation. Professor Galbraith 
and Mr. Keatinge Clay gave us the news that, if 
adopted by the League, and assured of their 
hearty aid, a young gentleman named Parnell — 
in fact, a representative of the Parnell family — 
would fight the colonel. Few of us had heard of 
him before the events of the previous month ; and 
we were disposed to look coldly on a young 
Protestant aristocrat, probably only a ' nominal ' 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 55 

Home Ruler, anxious merely for parliamentary 
honors. John Martin declared he would trust 
'any of the Parnells,' if they said the word. Still 
there was hesitancy ; and eventually we said, ' Let 
us see him.' The Council adjourned for the pur- 
pose, and on reassembling I saw Mr. C. S. Par- 
nell for the first time. I do not wish to pretend 
that I possessed any marvellous power of divin- 
ation, but, when the young neophyte had retired, 
I not only joined John Martin in espousing his 
cause, but I undertook to move his adoption at a 
public meeting which it was decided to hold in 
the Rotunda. In truth it had been a dream of my 
life to Q^et these vouna- Protestants of the landlord 
class into the ranks of, and to the head of, the 
Irish National movement. I judged it would be 
the sure way to bridge over the class antagonisms 
and to destroy sectarian hatreds ; and never did 
one of those men reach out a hand to the people 
that I did not spring to his side. At the public 
meeting above referred to, Mr. Parnell made his 
debut in public life. The resolution which I had 
moved in his favor having been adopted with ac- 
clamation, he came forward to address the assem- 
blage. To our dismay he broke down utterly. 
He faltered, he paused, went on, got confused, 
and, pale with intense but subdued nervous anx- 
iety, caused every one to feel deep sympathy for 
him. The audience saw it all, and cheered him 

kindly and heartily ; but many on the platform 
4 



56 GLADSTONE— PARNELL 

shook their heads, sagely prophesying that if ever 
he got to Westminster, no matter how long- he 
stayed there, he would either be a ' Silent Mem- 
ber,' or be known as ' Single-speech Parnell.' " 

Mr. Parnell was beaten, of course, by a huge 
majority ; for in these days, though the majority 
of the people of County Dublin were, as they are 
now, energetic Nationalists, the franchise suffrage 
was so restricted that a small minority was able 
to always win the seat. But Mr. Parnell had 
borne himself well in the struo^o-le; and thoutrh he 
was held to be absolutely devoid of speaking 
power, and his high Englisli accent was not re- 
garded with favor, yet he made many friends and 
admirers by the pluck with which he fought a for- 
lorn hope. The next year the man who had been 
chiefly instrumental in bringing him into public 
life died — honest John Martin. At the time of 
his death John Martin was member for County 
Meath, The count}', always strongly National, 
looked naturally with some scrutiny for a man 
capable of stepping into the place of a veteran 
and noble patriot. Parnell was selected, but he 
was not to get in without a contest. The Catho- 
lic aristocracy still stood by the old ways and by 
the English Parliament, and a member of the 
house of the Earl of Fingall, a Catholic peer, was 
put forward. But the people would not any 
longer be kept from the growing movement in 
favor of National self-government, and Parnell 
was returned at the head of the poll. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 57 

Parnell was now at last embarked on the career 
of an Irish pohtician. He had wot been long in 
the House when he discovered that things were 
not as they should be, and that the movement, 
though it appeared powerful to the outside pub- 
lic, was internally weak and to some extent even 
rotten. Butt, the leader of the Irish party, was a 
man of great intellectual powers, and was hon- 
estly devoted to the success of the cause. He 
was ready also to work very hard himself, and he 
drafted all the bills that were brought in on va- 
rious subjects by his followers. But he was old, 
had lived an exhausting life, was steeped in debt, 
and had to divide his time and energies between 
the calls of his profession as a lawyer and his 
duties as a legislator. Such double calls are 
especially harassing in the case of a man who is at 
once an Irish lawyer and an Irish politician. The 
law courts are in Dublin, the imperial Parliament 
is in London; the journey between the two cities, 
part by sea and part by land, is fatiguing even to 
a young man, and thus it was quite impossible that 
Butt could attend to his duties as a lawyer in 
Dublin and as a politician in London without 
damage to bodi. This seriously interfered with 
his efficiency, and was partly accountable for the 
break-down of himself and his party. 

But he had, besides, personal defects that made 
him unfit for difficult and stormy times. He was 
a soft-tempered, easy-going man who was without 



58 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

much moral courage, incapable of saying No, and 
with a thousand amiable weaknesses which leaned 
to virtue's side as a man, but were far from vir- 
tuous in the politician. As a speaker he was the 
most persuasive of men. He discussed with such 
candor, with such logic, with temper so beautiful, 
that even his bitterest opponents had to listen to 
him with respect. But the House of Commons 
has respect only for men who have votes behind 
them, and can turn divisions, and Butt was unable 
to turn divisions. 

This brinors us to the second defect in the Home 
Rule party of Butt. Most of his followers were 
rotten office-seekers. When in 1874 Butt had an 
opportunity of getting a party elected he was 
beset by the great weakness of all Irish move- 
ments — the want of money. The electoral insti- 
tutions of England were, and to a certain extent 
still are, such as to make political careers impossi- 
ble to any but the rich or the fairly rich. The 
costs of election are large, members of Parliament 
have no salary, and living in London is dear; and 
thus as a rule nobody has any chance of entering 
into political life unless he has a pretty full purse. 
The result was that when the contest came Butt 
was in a painful dilemma. The constituencies 
were all riijht, and were willino- to return an hon- 
est Nationalist, but there were no honest candi- 
dates, for there was no prospect but starvation to 
anybody who entered into political life without 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE, 59 

considerable means. Butt himself was terribly 
pressed for money at that very moment. He had 
to fly from a warrant for debt on the very morn- 
ing- when Mr. Gladstone's manifesto was issued, 
and John Barry, now one of the members for 
County Wexford, tells an amusing tale of how he 
received the then Irish leader in the early morn 
at Manchester, where Barry lived. It was from 
England that Mr. Butt had to direct the electoral 
campaign, and his resources for the whole thing 
amounted to a few hundred pounds. To Ameri- 
can readers these facts ought especially to be 
told, for they serve two objects: First, they show 
how it is that though the feeling of Ireland has 
always been strongly National, representatives of 
these opinions have not found a place in Parlia- 
ment until a comparatively recent period; and 
secondly, because they bring out clearly the enor- 
mous influence which America has exercised in the 
later phases of Irish policy by her generous sub- 
scriptions to the combatants for human rights and 
human liberty in Ireland. 

The result of all these circumstances was that 
Butt was compelled to fight constituencies with 
such men as turned up, and in the majority of 
cases to be satisfied with the old men under new 
pledges. Of course, these old representatives 
were quite as ready to adopt the new princi- 
ples of Home Rule as they would have adopted 
any other principles that secured them re-election, 



60 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

and through re-election the opportunity of selling 
themselves for office. Many of the members of 
the Home Rule party of 1874 were men, accord- 
ingly, who had been twenty or thirty years engaged 
in the ignoble work of seeking pay or pensions 
from the British authorities, and as ready as ever 
to sell themselves. Of course, such a spirit was 
entirely destructive of any chance of getting real 
good from Parliament. The English ministers 
felt that they were dealing with a set of men 
whose votes they could buy, and were not going 
to take any steps for the redress of the grievances 
of a country that was thus represented. 

It was no wonder, then, that when Mr. Parnell 
entered Parliament he at once beg-an to meet with 
painful disillusions. Mr. Butt's plan of action was 
to bring forward measures, to have them skilfully 
and temperately discussed, and then to submit to 
the vote w^hen it went against him. The Home 
Rule question was opened every year. Mr. Butt 
himself Introduced the subject in a speech of'great 
constitutional knowledge, of intense closeness of 
reasoning, and of a statesmanship the sagacity of 
which is now proved by the adoption of Butt's 
views by the leading statesmen of England. Then 
the leaders of both the English parties got up; 
each in turn condemned the proposal with equal 
emphasis; the division was called; Whig and 
Tory went into the same lobby; the poor Irish 
party was borne down by hundreds of English 



THE t;REAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 63 

votes, and Home Rule was dead for anodier year. 
Parnell's mind is eminently practical. Great 
speeches, splendid meetings, imposing proces- 
sions — all these thincjs are as nothino- to him 
unless they bring material results. He was as 
great an admirer as anybody else of the genius 
of Isaac Butt, but he could see no good whatever 
in great speeches and full-dress debates that left 
the Irish question exactly where it was before, 
He saw, too, that Isaac Butt was the victim of one 
great illusion. Butt founded his whole policy on 
appeals to and faith in the reason of the House 
of Commons. Parnell saw very clearly that at 
that period the keeper of the conscience in the 
House of Commons on the Irish question was the 
division lobby. "Appeal to the good sense and 
good feeling of the House of Commons," said 
Butt; and the House of Commons replied by 
quietly but effectually telling him that it didn't 
care a pin about his feelings or his opinions — its 
resolution was fixed never to, o-rant Home Rule 
to Ireland. Parnell naturally began to think of 
an opposite policy. "Attack the House through 
its own interests and convenience," said he to 
Butt, "and then you need not beg it — you can 
force it to listen." 

When Parnell entered into Parliament there 
was already another member there whose mind 
was of an even more realistic order than his own. 
At the general election of 1874 Joseph Gillis Big- 



64 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

gar had been returned for the County of Cavan. 
Big-gar is an excellent type of the hard-headed 
Northerner. He was all his life in the pork 
trade, and had the reputation of being one of the 
closest, keenest and most successful business men 
of Belfast. Biggar is not a man who has read 
much — he does not even read the newspapers 
which contain attacks upon himself; but he has 
an extremely shrewd, penetrating mind, a judg- 
ment that is often narrow but is nearly always 
sound, and that once formed is unchangeable by 
friend or foe. But above all thing^s, Bioro-ar has 
extraordinary and marvellous courage. This 
courap-e exhibits itself in small as well as in bie 
things. He has the courage to refuse an exorbi- 
tant fare to a cabman or a fee to a waiter; will 
oppose the best friend as readily as the bitterest 
enemy if he think him wrong; can speak unpleas- 
ant truths without the least qualms; and is not so 
much indifferent as unconscious of what other 
people say about him. In these respects he was 
the very opposite of poor Butt, who v/as childishly 
sensitive to opinion either of friend or foe. Big- 
gar had been greatly disgusted with the way 
things were going in the House of Commons even 
before Parnell had become his colleague. He 
has a wonderfully keen eye in seeing through 
falsehood and pretense, and if he be once con- 
vinced that a man is dishonest he loathes him for- 
ever afterwards. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. §5 

Joseph Gillis Biggar was born In Belfast, on 
August I, 1828. He was educated at the Belfast 
Academy, where he remained from 1832 to 1844. 
The record of his school-days is far from satisfac- 
tory. He was very indolent — at least he says so 
himself — he showed no o-reat love of reading- — in 
this regard the boy, indeed, was father to the man 
— he was poor at composition, and, of course, ab- 
jectly hopeless at elocution. The one talent he 
did exhibit was a talent for figures. It was, per- 
haps, this want of any particular success in learn- 
ing, as well as delicacy of health, which made Mr. 
Biggar's parents conclude that he had better be 
removed from school and placed at business. He 
was taken into his father's office, who — as is 
known — was engaged in the provision trade, and 
he continued as assistant until 1861, when he be- 
came head of the firm. This part of his career 
may be here dismissed with the remark that he 
retired from trade in 1880, and is now entirely 
out of business. 

A great difficulty meets the biographer of Mr. 
Biggar at the outset. He is not uncommunicative 
about himself, but he does not understand him- 
self, and he much underrates himself. Asked by 
a friend to write his autobiography, his answer 
was : " I am a very commonplace character." In 
his early days, when he used to be asked to make 
a speech, he cheerfully started out on the at- 
tempt, having made the preliminary statement, 
" I can't speak a d d bit." 



66 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

To think (writes Mr. Healy, one of Mr. Big- 
gar's most intimate friends and warmest admir- 
ers) that the muddy vesture of Belfast did grossly 
close him in for nearly fifty years without one 
gleam of the jewel it enshrined. 

By what strange channels did his stark Presby- 
terian soul drink in the fertilizing dews of the 
traditions of Irish nationality ? In what northern 
furnace was it inflamed with that consuming 
hatred of Clan-London, which might glow in the 
passionate bosom of some down-trodden Catholic 
Celt? Was it as chairman of the Belfast Water 
Company he first attempted to lisp the bold an- 
them of Erin-go-Bragh ? The Lord only knows ! 

Other men write their memoirs or have their 
biographies written for them. But, alas ! when 
nature planted in the breast of Mr. Biggar the 
spirit of obstruction, she neglected to provide 
him with any gift of introspection, so that the 
most skilful tapping doth but coldly furnish forth 
his inward yearnings and tendings. 

Still acting on information I have received, I 
timidly venture to set down the fact that one 
hears at times, in tracing his early development, 
of a certain grandmother. Thereat, of course, a 
smile arises ; but I desire to place her memory on 
reverent record, for she entertained the boyhood 
of the father of obstruction with stories of the 
Antrim fight — where her brother, subsequently 
an exiled fugitive, was wounded — and of many 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 67 

another '98 chronicle of the Presbyterian rebels. 
It is a long cry, no doubt, from pikes to blue- 
books, but the Irish conflict is not a genteel duel 
with a courteous enemy, who proffers a choice o( 
weapons; so in place of the insurgent grand- 
uncle, who fled the country after the Antrim col- 
lapse, the Biggar family came in sequence to be 
represented in the warfare by the blocking boom- 
erang of the member for Cavan. 

There are few public men concerning whom 
the opinions of friends and foes are so divergent. 
Towards Mr. Biofoar the feelino- of his friends 
and intimates is affectionate almost to fanaticism. 
When there are private and convivial meetings 
of the Irish party, tlie effort is always made to 
limit the toasts to the irreducible minimum, for 
talking has naturally ceased to be much of an 
amusement to men who have to do so much of it 
in the performance of public duties. There is 
one toast, however, which is never set down and 
is always proposed : this toast is the " Health of 
Mr. Bie^ar." Then there occurs a scene which 
is pleasant to look upon. There arises from all 
the party one long, spontaneous, universal cheer, 
a cheer straight from every man's heart; the 
usually frigid speech of Mr. Parnell grows warm 
and even tender; everything shows that, whoever 
stands highest in the respect, Mr. Biggar holds 
first place in the affections of his comrades. 
There is another and not uninteresting phenom- 



g3 (ILADSTONE-PARNELL. 

enon of these occasions. To the outside world 
there is no man presents a sterner, a more pro- 
saic, and harder front than Mr. Biggar, On such 
occasions the other side of his character stands 
revealed. His breast heaves, his face flushes, he 
dashes his hand with nervous haste to his eyes ; 
but the tears have already risen and are rushing 
down his face. 

Among his intimate friends, then, Mr. Biggar 
is known as a man overflowing with kindness ; 
of an almost absolute unselfishness. A man once 
bitterly hated Mr. Biggar until he had a conver- 
sation with one of Mr. Bio-o-ar's sisters, and found 
that she was unable to speak of all her brother's 
kindness with an unbroken voice. It is amusing 
to watch his proceedings in the House of Com-* 
mons. With all his fifty-eight years he is at the 
beck and call of men who could be almost his 
grandchildren, Mr. Healy is preparing an on- 
slaught on the Treasury Bench. "Joe," he cries 
to Mr. Big-orar, " o-et me Return so-and-so." Mr. 
Biggar is ofl" to the library. He has scarcely got 
back when the relentless member for Monaghan 
requires to add to his armory the division list in 
which the perfidious Minister has recorded his 
infamy, and away goes Mr. Biggar to the library 
again. Then Mr. Sexton, busily engaged in the 
study of an official report, approaches the member 
for Cavan with a card and an insinuating smile, 
and Mr. Biggar sets forth on an expedition to see 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 69 

some of the importunate visitants by whom mem- 
bers of ParHament are dogged. As a quarter to 
six is approaching on a Wednesday evening, and 
Mr. Parnell thinks it just as well that the work 
of Government should not go on too fast, he calls 
on Mr. Bio;orar, and Mr. Biofoar is on his leofs, 
filling in the horrid interval — Heaven knows how ! 
The desolate stranger, who knows no member of 
Parliament, and yearns to see the House of Com- 
mons at work, thinks fondly of Mr. Biggar, and 
obtains a ticket of admission. He is seen almost 
every night surrounded by successive bevies of 
ladies — young and old, native and foreign — whom 
he is escorting to the Ladies' Gallery. Nobody 
asks any favor of Mr. BisfQfar without eettina- it. 
The man who to the outside public appears the 
most odious type of Irish fractiousness is adored 
by the policemen, worshipped by the attendants 
of the House ; and there is good ground for the 
suspicion that there was a secret treaty of friend- 
ship between him and the late Serjeant-at-Arms, 
the genial and popular Captain Gossett, founded 
on their common desire to brinof sittings to the 
abrupt and inglorious end of a "count out." 

But this is but one side of his character. His 
hate is as fierce and unquestioning as his love, 
and he hates all his political opponents. He has 
the true Ulster nature; uncompromising, down- 
right, self-controlled, narrow. The subtleties by 
which men of wider minds, more complex natures, 



VU GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

less stable purpose and conviction, are apt to pal- 
liate their changes are entirely incomprehensible 
to Mr. Biggar, and the self-justifications of moral 
weakness arouse only his scorn. This side of his 
character will be best illustrated by the statement 
that he has a stronof dislike and distrust of Mr. 
Gladstone, and that he loathes Mr. O'Connor 
Power. His purpose, too, when once resolved 
upon, is inflexible. Towards the close of the ses- 
sion of 1885 a tramway scheme in the south of 
Ireland came before the House of Commons after 
it had passed triumphantly through the House of 
Lords. In his political economy Mr. Biggar be- 
longs to the strictest sect of the laissez faire 
school, and to every tramway scheme under Gov- 
ernment patronage he has been accordi-ngly 
strongly hostile, believing that they should be left 
to. development by private enterprise. A depu- 
tation of stronor Nationalists came over from the 
district ; they made out a capital case, convinced 
all the other members of the party present that 
the tramway was necessary, and a resolution was 
passed in their favor. But Mr. Biggar remained 
quite unmoved, persisted in his hostility, got over 
another and a rival deputation, and finally killed 
the bill. It is this inflexibility of purpose that has 
made him so great a political force. Finally, he 
is as fearless as he is single-minded. The worst 
tempest in the House of Commons, the sternest 
decree that English law could enforce against an 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 71 

Irish patriot, and equally the disapproval of his 
own people, are incapable of causing him a mo- 
ment of trepidation. He has said many terrible 
things in the House of Commons : the instance 
has got to occur of his having retracted one syl- 
lable of anything he has ever said. There is a 
scene in " Pere Goriot " in which the pangs of 
the dying and deserted father are depicted with 
terrible force. He is speaking of his daughters 
and of their husbands : of the one he speaks with 
the tenderness of a woman's heart ; of the other, 
with the ferocity of an enraged tiger. The pas- 
sage sucraests the two sides of Mr. Biofofar's na- 
ture : in the depth of his love, in the fierceness 
of his hate, he is the " Pere Goriot " of Irish 
politics. 

Mr. Biggar's first attempt to enter Parliament 
was made at Londonderry in 1872. He had not 
the least idea of being successful ; but he had at 
this time mentally formulated the policy which he 
has since carried out with inflexible purpose — he 
preferred the triumph of an open enemy to that 
of a half-hearted friend. The candidates were 
Mr. Levv'is, Mr. (afterwards Chief Baron) Palles, 
and Mr. Biggar. At that moment Mr. Palles, as 
Attorney-General, was prosecuting Dr. Duggan 
and other Catholic bishops for the part they had 
taken in the famous Galway election of Colonel 
Nolan — and Mr. Biggar made it a first and indis- 
pensable condition of his withdrawing from the 



72 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

contest that these prosecutions should be dropped. 
Mr. Palles refused; Mr. Biggar received only 89 
votes, but the Whig was defeated, and he was 
satisfied. The bold fio-ht he had made marked 
out Mr. Biof2far as the man to lead one of the as- 
saults which at this time the risino- Home Rule 
party was beginning to make on the seats of 
Whig and Tory. He himself was in favor of try- 
ing his hand on some place where the fighting 
would be really serious, and he had an idea of 
contestine Monag-han. When the creneral elec- 
tion of 1874, however, came, it was represented 
to Mr. Biofear that he would better serve the 
cause by standing for Cavan. He was nominated, 
and returned, and member for Cavan he has since 
remained. Finally, let the record of the purely 
personal part of Mr. Biggar's history conclude 
with mention of the fact that, in the January of 
1877, he was received into the Catholic Church. 
The change of creed for a time produced a slight 
estranorement between himself and the other 
members of his family, who were staunch Ulster 
Presbyterians, and there were not wanting mali- 
cious intruders who sought to widen the breach. 
But this unpleasantness soon passed away, and 
Mr. Biggar is now on the very best of terms with 
his relatives. 

Not long after the night of Mr. Biggar's cele- 
brated four hours' speech, a young Irish member 
took his seat for the first time. This was Mr. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 73 

Parnell, elected for the county of Meath In suc- 
cession to John Martin. The veteran and incor- 
ruptible patriot had died a few days before the 
opening of this new chapter in Irish struggle. 
There was a strange fitness in his end. John 
Mitchel had been returned for the county of Tip- 
perary in 1875. After twenty-six years of exile 
he had paid a brief visit to his native country in 
the previous year. He had triumphed at last 
over an unjust sentence, penal servitude, and the 
weary waiting of all these hapless years, and had 
been selected as its representative by the premier 
constituency of Ireland. But the victory came 
too late. When he reached Ireland to fight the 
election he was a dying man. A couple of weeks 
after his return to his native land he was seized 
with his last illness, and after a few days suc- 
cumbed, in the home of his early youth and sur- 
rounded by some of his earliest friends. John 
Martin had been brought by Mitchel into the na- 
tional faith when they were both young men. 
They had been sentenced to transportation about 
the same time ; they had married two sisters ; they 
had both remained inflexibly attached to the same 
national faith throughout the long years of dis- 
aster that followed the breakdown of their at- 
tempted revolution. Martin, though very ill, and 
in spite of the most earnest remonstrances of 
friends, went over to be present at the death-bed 
of his life-long leader and friend, 

5 



74 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

At the funeral he caught cold, sickened, and in 
a few days died. He was buried close to Mitchel's 
grave. 

After Mr, Parnell's first election to Parliament, 
he, in common with his associate, Mr. Biggar, was 
deeply impressed by considering the impotence 
that had fallen upon the Irish party. Both were 
men eager for practical results, and debates, how- 
ever ornate and eloquent, which resulted in no 
benefit, appeared to them the sheerest waste of 
time, and a mockery of their country's hopes and 
demands. Probably they drifted into the policy 
of " obstruction," so called, rather than pursued it 
in accordance with a definite plan originally 
thought out. There was in the kish party at this 
time a man who had formulated the idea from 
close reflection on the methods of Parliament. 
This was Mr. Joseph Ronayne, who had been an 
enthusiastic Young Irelander, and though, amid the 
disillusions that followed the breakdown of 1848, 
he had probably bidden farewell forever to 
armed insurrection as a method for redressinp' 
Irish grievances, he still held by an old and stern 
gospel of Irish nationality, and thought that polit- 
ical ends were to be gained not by soft words, but 
by stern and relentless acts. He, if anybody, de- 
serves the credit of having pointed out, first to 
Mr. Biggar and then to Mr. Parnell, the methods 
of action Vv'hich have since proved so effective in 
the cause of Ireland. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 75 

When one now looks back upon the task 
which these two men set themselves, it will 
appear one of the boldest, most difficult, and 
most hopeless that two individuals ever proposed 
to themselves to work out. 

They set out, two of them, to do battle against 
650 ; they had before them enemies who, in the 
ferocity of a common hate and a common terror, 
forgot old quarrels and obliterated old party lines ; 
while among their own party there were false men 
who hated their honesty and many true men who 
doubted their sagacity. In this work of theirs 
they had to meet a perfect hurricane of hate and 
abuse ; they had to stand face to face with the 
practical omnipotence of the mightiest of modern 
empires ; they were accused of seeking to tram- 
ple on the power of the English House of Com- 
mons, and six centuries of parliamentary govern- 
ment looked down upon them in menace and in 
reproach. In carrying their mighty enterprise, 
Mr. Parnell and Mr. Bieear had to undergo 
labors and sacrifices that only those acquainted 
with the inside life of Parliament can fully appre- 
ciate. Those who undertook to conquer the 
House of Commons had first to conquer much of 
the natural man in themselves. The House of 
Commons is the arena which gives the choicest 
food to the intellectual vanity of the British sub- 
ject, and the House of Commons loves and re- 
spects only those who love and respect it. But 



76 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

the first principle of the active policy was that 
there should be absolute indifference to the opin- 
ion of the House of Commons, and so vanity had 
first to be crushed out. Then the active policy 
demanded incessant attendance in the House, and 
incessant attendance in the House amounts almost 
to a punishment. And the active policy required, 
in addition to incessant attendance, considerable 
preparation ; and so the idleness, which is the 
most potent of all human passions, had to be 
gripped and strangled with a merciless hand. 
And finally, there was to be no shrinking from 
speech or act because it disobliged one man or 
offended another; and therefore, kindliness of 
feeling was to be watched and guarded by re- 
morseless purpose. The three years of fierce 
conflict, of labor by day and by night, and of iron 
resistance to menace, or entreaty, or blandish- 
ment, must have left many a deep mark in mind 
and in body. " Parnell," remarked one of his fol- 
lowers in the House of Commons one day, as the 
Irish leader entered with pallid and worn face, 
" Parnell has done mighty things, but he had to 
go through fire and water to do them." 

Mr. BIggar was heard of before Mr. Parnell 
had made himself known ; and to estimate his 
character — and It is a character worth study — one 
must read carefully, and by the light of the 
present day, the events of the period at which he 
first started on his enterprise. In the session of 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 77 

1875 he was constantly heard of; on April 27 in 
that session he " espied strangers ; " and, in ac- 
cordance with the then existino^ rules of the House 
of Commons, all the occupants of the different 
galleries, excepting those of the ladies' gallery, 
had to retire. The Prince of Wales was amone 
the distinguished visitors to the assembly on this 
particular evening, a fact which added considera- 
ble effect to the proceeding of the member for 
Cavan. At once a storm burst upon him, be- 
neath which even a very strong man might have 
bent. Mr. Disraeli, the Prime Minister, got up, 
amid cheers from all parts of the House, to de- 
nounce this outrage upon its dignity ; and to mark 
the complete union of the two parties against the 
daring offender. Lord Hartington rose imme- 
diately afterwards. Nor were these the only 
quarters from which attack came. Members of 
his own party joined in the general assault upon 
the audacious violator of the tone of the House. 
Mr. Biggar was, above all other things, held to be 
wanting in the instincts of a gentleman. "I 
think," said the late Mr. George Bryan, another 
member of Mr. Butt's party, "that a man should 
be a gentleman first and a patriot afterwards," a 
statement which was, of course, received with 
wild cheers. Finally, the case was summed up 
by Mr. Chaplin. "The honorable member for 
Cavan," said he, '• appears to forget that he is now 
admitted to the society of gentlemen." This was 



78 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

one of the many allusions, fashionable at the 
time — among genteel journalists especially — to 
Mr. Biggar's occupation. It was his heinous of- 
fence to have made his money in the wholesale 
pork trade. Caste among business men and 
their families is regulated, both in England and 
Ireland, not only by the distinction between 
wholesale and retail, but by the particular article 
in which the trader is interested. It was not, 
therefore, surprising that an assembly which tol- 
erated the more aristocratic cotton should turn up 
its indignant nose at the dealer in the humbler 
pork. But much as the House of Commons was 
shocked at the nature of Mr. Biggar's pursuits, 
the horror of the journalist was still more ex- 
treme and outspoken. " Heaven knows " (said a 
writer in the World), " that I do not scorn a man 
because his path in life has led him amongst pro- 
visions. But though I may unaffectedly honor a 
provision dealer who is a Member of Parliament, 
it is with quite another feeling that I behold a 
Member of Parliament who is a provision dealer. 
Mr. BIggar brings the manner of his store into 
this illustrious assembly, and his manner, even for 
a Belfast store, is very bad. When he rises to 
address the House, which he did at least ten 
times to-night, a whiff of salt pork seems to float 
upon the gale, and the air is heavy with the odor 
of the kippered herring. One unacquainted with 
the actual condition of affairs might be forgiven if 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 79 

he thoiiMit there had been a laro-e failure in the 
bacon trade, and that the House of Commons was 
a meeting of creditors, and the riglit honorable 
gentlemen sitting on the Treasury Bench were 
members of the defaultino- firm, who, havino- con- 
fessed their inability to pay ninepence in the 
pound, were suitable and safe subjects for the 
abuse of an ungenerous creditor." 

These words are here quoted by way of illus- 
trating the symptoms of the times through which 
Mr. Biggar had to live, rather than because of any 
influence they had upon him. On this self-re- 
liant, firm, and masculine nature a world of ene- 
mies could make no impress. He did not even 
take the trouble to read the attacks upon him. 
The newspapers of the day were full of sarcasm 
against Mr. Biggar, the chief points made against 
him being directed at his alleged "grotesque ap- 
pearance" and "absurdity." Indeed, the impres- 
sion made upon such Americans as have derived 
their information regarding Irish affairs chiefly 
from the London periodicals has been that Mr. 
Biggar was a man of no sort of intelligence, and 
of no possible weight in Parliam.entary counsels, 
but that he was simply a hornet who was alwa)s 
ready to sting John Bull's leathern sides. That 
this hornet was a sore annoyance it was very 
evident. That he was fearless and persistent 
was equally plain. No man was more ready to 
assert Biggar's lack of scholastic acquirements 



80 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

than he himself was prompt to admit the fact. 
Even the proud tide of " father of obstruction " 
has been denied him, since obstructive action has 
long been recognized as a legitimate weapon in 
the hands of otherwise hopeless legislative mi- 
norities. Mr. Bieoar's real title to eminence lies 
largely in his persistence. He is emphatically a 
vir tcnax pi'opositi. Others may have had more 
definite plans for the future of Ireland. Others 
may have far excelled him in polidcal skill and 
tactics. Beyond a doubt there are many others 
who surpass him in the gifts and graces of 
oratorical display. He does not despise these 
gifts ; he simply does not possess them, and he 
knows the fact right well. Another point in his 
favor is his singleness of purpose and childlike 
simplicity of character, A certain un-Irish insen- 
sibility to attack has also helped Mr. Biggar. 

The attacks made in the House of Commons 
in his own hearingf neither touch him nor an- 
ger him. The only rancor he ever feels against 
Individuals is for the evil they attempt to do to the 
cause of his country. This little man, calmly and 
placidly accepting every humiliation and insult 
that hundreds of foes could heap upon him, in the 
relentless and untiring pursuit of a great purpose, 
may by-and-by appear, even to Englishmen, to 
merit all the affectionate respect with which he 
is regarded by men of his own country and 
principles. Before he was long a member 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 81 

of Butt's party he had seen that more than half 
the number were rascally self-seekers who didn't 
mean a word of what they said, and who were 
only looking out for the opportunity to don the 
English livery. 

And here, perhaps, it would be as well to pause 
for a moment and explain to an American reader 
what are the means which a British government 
has at its disposal for corrupting political oppo- 
nents. Few Americans realize the splendor of 
the prizes that are at the disposal of the British 
authorities. Americans know that members of 
Parliament are paid no salary ; they hear the 
boasts of the enormous and immaculate purity of 
public life in England ; and they, many of them, 
infer that political life in England is preceded by 
the vows of purity and poverty. As a matter of 
fact, there is no country in the world in which 
politics has prizes so splendid to offer. The sala- 
ries reach proportions unexampled in ancient or 
modern times. The Lord Chancellor of England, 
for instance, has a salary of fifty thousand dollars 
a year as long as he is in office, and once he has 
held office — if it be only for an hour — he has a 
pension of twenty-five thousand dollars a year for 
the remainder of his days. The Lord Chancellor, 
besides, has extraordinary privileges. He is the 
head of the judiciary of the country; he is Speaker 
of the House of Lords ; he is a peer with right of 
succession to his children ; he is a member of the 



82 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

cabinet. The Speaker of the House of Commons 
has a salary of twenty-five thousand dollars a 
year, a splendid house in the Parliament buildings ; 
fire and li^rht and coal free ; and when he retires 
he gets a pension of twenty thousand dollars a 
year for life and a peerage. Several of the cab- 
inet ministers receive salaries of twenty-five 
thousand dollars a year. The Lord Chief-Justice 
of the Queen's Bench gets a salary of forty 
thousand dollars a year, and the puisne judges 
get a salary each of twenty-five thousand dollars 
a year. 

In Ireland — one of the poorest countries in the 
world — the official salaries are on almost an equal 
scale of extravasfance. The Lord-Lieutenant re- 
ceives a salary of one hundred thousand dollars 
a year and many allowances. The Chief Secre- 
tary for Ireland receives a salary of twenty-five 
thousand dollars a year, with many allowances. 
The Lord Chancellor has a salary of forty thou- 
sand dollars a year during office, and, as in the 
case of the Lord Chancellor of Eno-land, has a 
pension for life even if he have held the office for 
but an hour; the pension is twenty thousand dol- 
lars a year. The Chief-Justice of the Queen's 
Bench Court has a salary of twenty-five thousand 
dollars a year; and the puisne judges, who, as in 
England, hold their offices for life, have a salary 
of nineteen thousand dollars a year. The Attor- 
ney-General 'in Ireland has a nominal salary of 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 83 

^12,895, but he has fees besides for every case in 
which he prosecutes ; and, as times of disturbance 
bring many prosecutions, he thrives on the un- 
happiness of the country. Frequently the salary 
of the Irish Attorney-General, in times of dis- 
quiet, has run up to fifty thousand dollars in the 
year, or even more. Then, as everybody knows, 
England has innumerable colonies, and in all her 
colonies there are richly paid offices. The average 
salary of a governor of a colony is twenty-five 
thousand dollars, and there are chief-justiceships, 
and puisne judgeships, and lieutenant-governor- 
ships, and a thousand and one other things which 
can always be placed at the disposal of an obe- 
dient and useful friend of the administration. 

The difficulty of the Irish struggle will be 
understood when it is recollected that, in antago- 
nism to all this, the Irish people have nothing to 
offer their faithful servants. In Ireland there are, 
practically speaking, no offices in the gift of the 
people. From the judgeships down to a place in 
the lowest rank of the police, everything is in the 
eift of the British orovernment. Nor is this all. 
The Irish patriot, up to the last year, always ran 
the risk of collision with the authorities, and, in 
consequence, faced the chances of imprisonment. 
Mr. Parnell has been in prison ; Mr. Dillon has been 
twice in prison ; Mr. O'Kelly has been in prison ; 
Mr. Sexton has been in prison ; Mr. William 
O'Brien has been in prison; Mr. Healy has been 



84 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

in prison ; Mr. Timothy Harrington has been 
three times in prison ; Mr. Edward Harrington 
has been in prison ; Dr. O'Doherty was sent to 
penal servitude in '48 ; Mr. J. F. X. O'Brien was 
sent to penal servitude in 1867, having first been 
sentenced to be hanged, drawn, and quartered. 
Out of the eighty-six Irish members of the present 
Irish party no less than twenty-five have been, 
on one excuse or other, and for longer or shorter 
terms, imprisoned by the British authorities. The 
choice, then, of the Irish politician lay between 
wealth, dignity, honors, ease, which were offered 
for traitorous service by the British government, 
and the poverty and hardship and lowliness, with 
a fair prospect of the workhouse and the gaol, 
which were the only rewards of the faithful servant 
of the Irish people. Isaac Butt himself was a 
signal and terrible example of what Irish patriot- 
ism entails. We have already described how 
hard he had to work in his closing days to meet 
the strain of professional and political duties. 
When he was wrestling with the growing disease 
that ultimately killed him, he was beset by duns 
and bailiffs, and his mind was overshadowed with 
the dread thoueht that he had left his children 
unprovided for. And to-day, in poverty — perhaps 
in misery — they are paying the penalty of having 
been begotten by a great and a true Irishman. 
Any man of political experience or reading will 
know how easy it is for a government to rule a 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 85 

country if it have the gift of wealth to bestow, or 
the curse of poverty to entail. In our own clays 
we have seen France ruled for twenty years by 
an autocrat through bayonets and offices ; and the 
offices were just as important an element in the 
governing as the bayonets. The fears of the 
timid, the hopes of the corrupt, are the founda- 
tions of unjust government in all ages. If Amer- 
icans be sometimes impatient at the duration of 
British domination and the helplessness of Irish 
efforts to overthrow it, they must always take into 
account the vast influence which an extremely 
wealthy country has been able to exercise over 
an extremely poor country by the gift of richly- 
dowered office. 

As soon as Biggar found that the new race of 
so-called Nationalists were of exactly the same 
brood as those who had gone before he made up 
his mind that these men would do nothing for 
Ireland, and he took his own course. Biggar's 
mind is essentially combative. He is utterly with- 
out the Christianity of spirit that suggests the 
acceptance of a blow on one cheek after being 
struck on the other, and he was brooding over 
some means by which he could give these insolent 
Englishmen blow for blow. But the member for 
Cavan has not a mind of much initiative, and he 
was helpless until he had the assistance of Mr. 
Parnell. 

A few nights before Parnell took his seat the 



86 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

House of Commons was enofaged in the not un- 
familiar task of debating a Coercion Bill for Ire- 
land. A Coercion Bill in these days was not 
thought much about; it was not felt as much of a 
hardship on the English side nor as much of an 
outrage on the Irish. Such was the poor spirit 
of the Irish representatives of these days that Sir 
Michael Hicks-Beach, the Conservative Chief 
Secretary, who was passing the bill through the 
House of Commons, used frequently to be com- 
plimented by so-called Irish National Represent- 
atives for his courtesy; the least little concession 
was hailed as an example of whole-souled gen- 
erosity ; and if an Irish member ventured to put 
the government to any inconvenience, by asking 
for the postponement of the discussion or by 
"obstructing" in any way the progress of busi- 
ness, he was at once pounced upon by his col- 
leagues and charged with ungenerous and irra- 
tional obstinacy. There was among the party at 
the time a shrewd and witty Corkman named 
Joseph Ronayne. Ronayne had been one of the 
party that in 1848 wanted to fight against the 
intolerable wrongs of Ireland. Time had brought 
the philosophic mind so far that Ronayne saw 
some hope in constitutional agitation ; but he was 
quite as fierce and quite as masculine a Nationalist 
as ever. He had a sharp and humorous tongue. 
The compliments that were poured on the Eng- 
lish Chief Secretary at the moment when he was 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 87 

depriving" Irishmen of the fundamental rights 
of citizens roused his gorge, and he compared 
them to the shake-hands which the convict gives 
to the hangman immediately before his execu- 
tion. 

Biggar was not the man to pay such compli- 
ments, to consult the ease of ministers, or to have 
refjard to what used to be called the tone of the 
House. He resented frankly and irreconcilably 
the coercion of his country; he hated the man 
who proposed it ; he didn't care a farthing what 
the House of Commons liked or disliked ; his 
policy was to fight the bill clause by clause, line 
by line, in season and out of season, with the con- 
venience of the House and against the conven- 
ience of the House ; and with absolute disregard 
of protest or plaint, of compliment or threat. 

It was on the night of April 22, 1875, that he 
first got the opportunity of putting this policy into 
effect. Mr. Butt asked Mr. Biggar to speak 
against time on a Coercion Bill. Mr. Butt had 
probably little idea at that moment of what he 
was doinof. It was on this eventful nio-ht that one 
of the most singular and most potent political 
births of our time saw the light. On that night 
Parliamentary obstruction was born. 

Mr. Biggar rose at five in the evening. One 
of the writers of this work happened to be in the 
Speaker's gallery of the House of Commons on 
this evening and remembers the speech very well. 



88 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

The subject was Irish coercion, but Mr. Biggar 
seemed to be giving- his opinion on every subject 
under heaven. For instance he happened to 
stumble across something of a rehgious character, 
and thereupon he gave the House the benefit of 
his views on the great question of Ritual which 
divides the two schools of relis^ious thouo-ht in the 
Established Church of England. It is probable 
that Mr. Biggar could not tell the difference be- 
tween a High and a Low Churchman ; and that 
if he could know the difference, he would not re- 
gard it as of the least importance. But he man- 
aged to dissertate on the subject for several sen- 
tences, and so filled up a portion of the time. 
At last his voice began to fail, and a friend who 
was watching the game resolved to come to his 
assistance. According to the rules of the House 
of Commons forty members is the quorum at a 
debate. The forty members need not be in the 
House itself. They may be dining or wining, en- 
joying a cigar In one of the smoke-rooms or en- 
gaged in study in a room in the library; but when 
a count is moved they all hurry in ; the Speaker 
counts ; if there be forty members present, the 
debate goes on, and the greater number of mem- 
bers scuttle back to the half-eaten chop or the 
half-smoked cigar ; while if there be not forty, the 
House stands adjourned. A count takes a5out 
five minutes, three minutes being allowed to the 
members to assemble from the different places of 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 89 

retreat. These five minutes Mr. Biggar utilized 
in recovering breath. But agfain his voice begran 
to fail, and the Speaker thought he had him in a 
trap. He declared that the member for Cavan 
was out of order; his remarks were inaudible and 
no longer reached the chair. But Mr. Biggar was 
equal to the occasion. He moved up closer to 
the chair, and as the Speaker had not heard his 
previous observations obligingly offered to repeat 
them all over again. 

It was five minutes to 9 o'clock when Mr. 
Biggar resumed his seat ; he had spoken nearly 
four hours. This was the becjinninof of the new 
era. Hence Mr. Biggar is known by the proud 
title of the " Father of Obstruction." It was a 
few nights after this that Charles Stewart Par- 
nell took his seat for the first time as a member 
of the House of Commons. It was characteristic 
of his whole future that he spoke the very first 
night of his entrance into the House, and that 
his first speech was a vigorous protest against a 
Coercion Act for Ireland ; for the discussion of the 
question was still proceeding on which Mr. Biggar 
had m.ade his historic speech. 

The first speech of Mr. Parnell has never been 
since republished, and It may well be reproduced 
now: 

" Mr. Parnell, in supporting the motion of the 
hon. member for Cavan, observed that no argu- 
ments had been advanced against the amendment 
6 



90 GLADSTONE— rARNELL. 

of his hon. friend. The hon. member for Derry 
(Mr. R. Smyth), although he agreed with the 
principle of the bill, said he should vote in favor 
of the amendment as being a just and proper one. 
The Chief Secretary for Ireland, as an open foe, 
had, of course, opposed it, and he also had the 
noble marquis who was supposed to lead the op- 
position in that House. What reason had the 
hon. member for Derry given for approving the 
principle of the bill ? It was this, that some coer- 
cion was necessary in his district to prevent 
Catholics and Protestants flying at each other's 
throats. But was that any reason why thirty 
other Irish counties should be placed under Coer- 
cion Laws ? It had been said that some half-dozen 
Irish landlords had given it as their opinion that 
without coercion they could not exercise the 
rights of property. What did they mean by the 
rights of property ? He always noticed that when 
a Coercion Bill was to be passed through the 
House they heard a great deal about the rights 
of property, but very little about its duties. 
Their views as to the rights of property were 
sometimes a little curious. He had seen Irish 
landlords sitting in polling-booths as agents for 
the Conservative candidate, hearing illiterate 
voters record their votes, and their tenants trem- 
bling when they came to vote against that candi- 
date. That was an exercise of the rights of prop- 
erty of which he did not think Englishmen would 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 91 

approve. There had not been threatenhig letter- 
writing of late, or shooting, or agrarian crime, and 
was that, he asked, a time to bring in a Coercion 
Bill ? Was that a proper time to stop all discus- 
sion on the measure when Irish members were 
telling the House what the wishes of their constit- 
uents with regard to it were ? The hon. member 
for Derry had told the House that the Irish ten- 
ant farmers of the North were convinced that 
some remedial measures were necessary for the 
restoration of tranquillity in that part of their 
country, and had said that if a promise of a Land 
Bill was held out, whereby small holders would 
be secured in their holdings, Ireland, instead of 
being a soui-ce of weakness, would be a source 
of strength to England. He (Mr. Parnell) did 
not profess to speak on behalf of the Irish tenant 
farmers, but he did not believe that Irish tenant 
farmers, even those living in the Black North, 
were so locked up in self-interest as to be inclined 
to give up the interest of their country to serve 
that of their class. When the proper time came, 
perhaps it would be found that he was as true a 
friend to the tenant farmer as even the hon. 
member for Derry, and he said this, knowing 
well the importance of securing the tenant in his 
holding, but knowing also that in the neglect of 
the principles of self-government lay the root of 
all Irish trouble. The Chief Secretary for Ireland 
had found fault with the lano-uaofe which had been 



92 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

used by the hon. member for Derry ; but he (Mr. 
Parnell) did not know who had appouited the 
rieht hon. "-entleman the censor of the lang-uaore 
used in that House by hon. members. He 
thouo-ht the facts of the hon. Q-entleman were well 
put, and he only wished he was with them on 
their (the Home Rule) benches. Perhaps the 
Chief Secretary detected a sort of terror arising 
in the hon. member's mind, that the time-honored 
and ancient Whig hack would no longer be able 
to carry matters with a high hand in Derry 
county, and was holding out to him a helping 
hand in the event of his thinkinof of chanorino- his 
side of the House. For his own part, however, 
he did not think that the hon. member was likely 
to turn his coat, and he was convinced that he 
would always be found where he believed that the 
interests of his county required him. He trusted 
that the time would arrive when the history of the 
past would be forgotten, so far as it reminded 
England that she was not entided to Ireland's 
confidence, and when she would give to Irishmen 
the right which they claimed — the right of self- 
government. Why should Ireland be treated as 
a geographical fragment by England, as he had 
heard an ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer call it 
some time ago ? Ireland was not a geographical 
fragment, but a nation. He asked the House to 
regard Ireland as anxious to defend England when 
her hour of trial came, and he trusted the day 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 



93 



miofht come when Enoland mio-ht see that her 
strength lay in a truly independent, a truly free, 
and a truly self-supporting Irish nation." 

The English press was by no means pleased 
with Mr. Parnell's first speech. He was accused 
of shoutinof and screaming after the fashion of the 
wildest of wild Irishmen. He certainly did speak, 
as the words will show, with fierce passion, and 
his voice was loud and shrill. But if Mr. Parnell 
made any mistake in his style he was soon to 
correct it. His fierce political passion was the 
same, but he saw reason for restraining its expres- 
sion ; and with that perfect readiness he has always 
shown to adopt his means to his end he re- 
solved to try a different plan. Mr, Biggar pointed 
out that the way to Irish redress lay through 
Parliamentary obstruction. Mr. Parnell decided 
to follow this path, though it was dark and narrow 
and thorny. The doofSfed courasfe of Mr. BiofSfar 
had found the necessary supplement in the bold, 
daring, and inventive brain of the young member 
for County Meath. The hour had come ; and 
the man. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE ERA OF OBSTRUCTION. 

BEFORE the policy of Parliamentary ob- 
struction is properly understood the reader 
must have some acquaintance with the rules and 
manners of the British House of Commons. 

The House of Commons meets for a period 
generally beginning the first week of February, 
and endino: in the second week of Auo^ust each 
year. It meets for five out of the seven days of 
the week for t.he transaction of business. On 
every one of those days except Wednesday the 
hour for assembling is lo minutes to 4 o'clock. 
The sitting has no definite time of closing, and 
cases have been known where it has been ex- 
tended to forty-one hours, or almost two days, 
continuously. The House cannot adjourn unless 
on a motion carried by the members present. So 
rigid is this rule that a story is told how, on one 
occasion, the Speaker was left alone in his chair; 
the official whose duty it was to move the ad- 
journment having forgotten to attend to do so, 
and that official had to be sent for, in order that 
the necessary formality might be complied with. 
(94) 




MR. JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN, M. P. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 97 

On Wednesdays the House meets at 1 2 and 
closes at 6 o'clock. 

The business of the House is divided into two 
categories, viz. : First, what is called government 
business ; and, secondly, the business of "private" 
members. Mondays and Thursdays throughout 
the session are what are called " Government 
Nights," and on these occasions the business of 
the executive administration has precedence over 
all others. Tuesdays and Fridays are private 
members' nights, and on these occasions the 
business of the private members has priority over 
that of the government. On the nights devoted 
to the private members the business usually con- 
sists of resolutions upon some of the questions of 
the day which are not yet actually ripe for legis- 
lation. A member makes, say, a motion calling 
for the abolition of capital punishment; or for a 
change in the licensinij laws ; or for the cessation 
of the traffic in opium ; or for the abolition of the 
House of Lords ; or for the disestablishment of 
the church ; or for some such kindred purpose. 

Members sometimes make an attempt to carry 
their proposals into law, and introduce bills for 
that object ; but, generally speaking, the efforts 
of members are confined to abstract motions. 
Tuesday night belongs entirely to private mem- 
bers — the o-overnment not even makinof an at- 
tempt to get any portion of the time for the 
transaction of its own work. On Friday nights, 



98 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

however, the government sometimes succeeds In 
getting- through a few of its proposals. "Supply," 
or "appropriation" as it is called in America, is 
put down for that night. It is a principle of the 
Enorlish Constitution that the statement of a 
grievance shall precede supply. On Friday 
nights, accordingly, before the government are 
able to get a penny of money from the House, 
they have to listen to anything that a private 
member has to say. Sometimes half a dozen 
motions on half a dozen different subjects are put 
upon the paper, and are discussed. A private 
member even has the right to stand up in his 
place, and talk about any subject without putting 
a notice upon the paper. It thus very often hap- 
pens that the discussion of a grievance proceeds 
till 1 2 or I o'clock at night ; and when the debate 
has been extended to this period the government 
give up the project of getting money ; and there- 
upon no supply is taken that night. 

There is another rule which has a most im- 
portant effect upon the transaction of business in 
the House of Commons. This is " the half-past 
12 o'clock rule," under which no business that is 
opposed can be taken. The Cabinet proposes, 
for instance, a bill for the future government of 
Ireland, At once a member of the Tory party, or 
of the Liberals who are opposed to it, puts down 
an " amendment " moving that the bill in question 
be read that day six months, which is the official 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 99 

way of moving the rejection of the measure. As 
long as this amendment appears upon the paper 
the bill cannot be taken after half-past 12 o'clock 
at night. An amendment of the kind is what is 
known in Parliamentary vocabulary as a "block- 
ing" motion. It often happens that a bill which 
is very much objected to seems to have a chance of 
coming on about half-past 1 1 or i 2 o'clock. When 
this occurs a number of members opposed to it 
immediately begin to talk against time, with the 
result that half-past i 2 o'clock is reached ; then 
the bill has to be postponed till another day. 

Wednesday, to a great extent, is a dies non in 
Parliament. It is entirely given up to private 
members, and the subjects discussed are usually 
something in the nature of a fad or crotchet or an 
" ism," A chancre in the ecclesiastical law and 
other pious matters used to form the leading sub- 
jects of discussion, and this earned for Wednes- 
day the reputation of being the special day for 
religious bills. At a quarter to 6 on the Wednes- 
day the debate, if proceeding, has to cease upon 
any bill which is the subject of discussion. Ac- 
cordingly, whenever a division is not considered 
desirable on that day, a speaker will get up about 

5 o'clock or later, and talk on until a quarter to 
6. The debate has then to be interrupted, and 
thus a division is avoided. Between a quarter to 

6 and 6 business can be done to which no objection 
is made; and often that short space of time is occu- 



100 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

pied most usefully by a member of the government 
or private member in getting a bill through its 
final stage. But if any member get up and use 
the words, "I object," the bill cannot be advanced 
any stage, and is postponed till another day. 

The first thine to be remembered about the 
House of Commons is, that it is a machine en- 
tirely incapable of transacting the amount of work 
put upon it. The affairs of India, colonial rela- 
tions, international relations, the domestic affairs 
of England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales — all 
these subjects have to be dealt with in one single 
Parliament. Frequently there are questions 
which involve such pith and moment as a threat- 
ened war between England and Russia, down to 
the less significant matter of a complaint about 
the defective paving of a street in London, or the 
neglect of a pauper in an Irish workhouse. 
There is no division between imperial and local 
government such as there is in the United States. 
In fact, the imperial Parliament is in the same 
position as the Congress at Washington would be 
if the State Legislatures throughout the whole 
country were abolished, and their work trans- 
ferred to the central assembly in the national 
capitol. The result of the arrangement of the 
imperial legislature is, that the main work of 
government is to attempt a victory in an ever- 
failing race with time. The history of every 
administration and, indeed, of every session of 
Parliament is the same. 




KLAJjliMj of IHK vLKKXb ^PIlElH. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 103 

The session opens with the Queen's speech, 
in which are enumerated a number of questions 
demandinof the immediate attention of Her 
Majesty's " faithful Commons," and bills are 
promised upon them. Sometimes the bills men- 
tioned are a dozen or a dozen and a half; and as 
a matter of practice the ministry is tolerably for- 
tunate that succeeds in o-ettins:' one o-reat meas- 
ure through Parliament in a single session. 

Time, then, is the very life of an English ad- 
ministration, and anybody who is able to consume 
time is able to so embarrass the administration 
as to make its work impossible and its existence 
almost intolerable. On the other hand the rules 
of the House of Commons supply almost unlim- 
ited opportunities for occupying time. All the 
money required for the army and navy, for the 
civil service, the police, and nearly all the other 
departments of state have every penny of them to 
be voted annually. Under the rules of the House 
debate is allowed not merely on the amount of 
the items — that is to say, on the narrow question 
whether they are so much or so little — but on the 
policy for which the money has been expended or 
the officials employed. Thus, for instance, a vote 
for a special commissioner to the Transvaal gives 
a member the opportunity of discussing the entire 
policy of the annexation of the Transvaal, and a 
debate on an item of five thousand dollars for 
such official may last two or three nights. On 



104 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

the question of voting fifty thousand dollars to 
the Irish police the Irish members are at liberty 
to discuss the whole police administration of the 
country from the constitution of that body down 
to its conduct of a hundred evictions or in a thou- 
sand prosecutions. On an item for the repair of 
royal palaces, or the fees at the knighthood of a 
member of the royal family, Mr. Labouchere 
might branch out into a prolonged dissertation of 
the comparative merits of royal and republican 
institutions. In short, "Supply" contains thou- 
sands of items, and on each item practically a 
long debate could take place. 

In order to bring this state of things more 
clearly before the mind of the American reader 
appended is a specimen passage from a bulky 
Volume of Supply which is laid before the House 
for its consideration every session. 

In explanation of some items of the following 
tables it may be said that the Chief Secretary has 
an Official Residence in the Phoenix Park. The 
Under Secretary has an Official Residence in the 
Phoenix Park and one in Dublin Castle. The 
Office Keepers in Dublin and London have 
apartments, and one of the 2d Class Messen- 
gers, who acts as Hall Porter, has apartments in 
Dublin Castle. The present Office Keeper in 
Dublin also receives an allowance of 30 /. a year 
for the cleaning of the Teachers' Pension Office 
payable out of Class IV., Vol. 15. 



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THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 2^5 

The basis of the polic}'' of Mr. Parnell and Mr. 
Biggar was, that the Irish party should take ad- 
vantage of the way in which the rules of the House 
of Commons thus left the English ministries at 
the mercy of any resolute body of men. They 
pointed out to Mr. Butt that his annual debates 
were not advancing the Irish cause by one step, 
and that he must adopt entirely different methods 
if he hoped to succeed in his mission. Mr. Butt, 
however, was a man of amiability that reached to 
weakness. He knew that a policy of this kind 
could not be carried out without coming into 
fierce collision with the House of Commons, even 
without evoking a storm of interruption and of 
passion there, too, and an equally violent storm 
of passion outside. Kindly himself, he trusted to 
conciliation, and he had not the nerve to face the 
frowns and the hootincrs of men with whom he 
was in daily intercourse. For a long time Mr. 
Parnell and Mr. Biggar pressed their views upon 
the Irish leader over and over again, but with no 
satisfactory result ; and they finally came to the 
conclusion that it was perfectly impossible to hope 
for anything from Mr. Butt's initiative, and that 
they must take the work in hand themselves. 

It was acting upon these ideas that Mr. Parnell 
and Mr. Biggar started the movement known as 
the " Policy of Obstruction." They began by 
blocking every bill brought in by the government. 
This single step alone created a revolutionary 



116 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

change in the situation. Up to this time the gov- 
ernment had been able to get through some of 
their bills at whatever hour of the sitting they 
came on — whether i or 2 or 3 or 4 o'clock in the 
morning. Now, however, their operations could 
not reach beyond half-past 12 o'clock. This is 
how the new and the old system worked. Sup- 
pose half a dozen government bills put down 
on Monday or Thursday night; under the old 
system four or five of these bills would have a fair 
chance of being considered on the same night. 
Under the new system it rarely happened that 
more than one of the bills was even discussed. 
Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar were there to speak 
at length, sometimes for an hour, other times for 
two hours, and frequently talking even nonsense. 
The result was, that a debate, which began at 5 
o'clock and was expected to finish at 8 o'clock, 
would be prolonged by these indefatigable talkers 
until II or 12 o'clock, and then some one of their 
friends would start up at midnight, and, by 
speaking till half-past i 2 o'clock, prevent the gov- 
ernment from brineino- on bill No. 2. 

In the House of Commons talk begets talk, and 
the speeches of the Irish members always resulted 
in eliciting speeches from the English members. 
Sometimes the speeches of their opponents took 
the form of violent attack and personal vitupera- 
tion, but Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biofear did not care 
a pin. In fact they were only too delighted, for 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. ^27 

those attacks not only wasted time in themselves, 
but produced that feverish temper in the House 
during which abundant speech became infectious. 
Whenever, too, there were little interstices of 
time, which in the easy-going good old days the 
government were able to fill up with little bills, 
there was either Mr. Parnell or Mr. Biggar ready 
to stand up and fill in the chasm, and so prevent 
the bills from coming on. "Supply" was their 
happy hunting-ground. On every item which 
gave the least promise of fruitful discussion they 
raised a debate. This was especially the case 
with Irish supply. On the votes for the constab- 
ulary, or for the state prosecutions, or for money 
to the Chief Secretary, they initiated discussions 
that dragged into the light every dark place in 
the English administration of Irish affairs. That 
put the government upon their defence, and 
sometimes kept the subject of Ireland before the 
House and the country for weeks in succession. 
The vote for the police alone has, been known to 
occupy a week in discussion ; and the entire Irish 
votes have rarely taken less than three or four 
weeks in stormy times. 

Nothing will bring more clearly before the mind 
of the reader the difierence between the old and 
the new time than a sinorle incident that occurred 
with regard to these Irish esdmates. One night 
Mr. Butt and his followers were dining in the 
House of Commons. They had intended to raise 



118 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

some kind of a debate upon the government of 
Ireland upon the Irish estimates. In the middle 
of the dinner somebody came, breathless and dis- 
mayed, to announce that the Irish estimates had 
all passed through in the course of a few minutes 
without a word of comment or a whisper of disap- 
proval. It was fortunate for Mr. Parnell and Mr. 
Biggar that at this time also the government, 
which at the moment belonged to the Conserva- 
tive party, resolved to bring in a series of measures 
which were of much length and vast perplexity. 
SoniQ of these measures, besides, raised questions 
upon which Mr. Parnell knew some feeling would 
be raised in England. He had known of the ex- 
istence for a long time of a party violently opposed 
to flogging in the arm)^ — an odious institution, 
which survived in England alone, of all civilized 
countries in the world. Mr. Parnell readily con- 
cluded from this that if he raised a debate upon 
flogging in the army he would be followed by a 
certain number of Englishmen ; that they would 
talk and divide along with him, and that in this 
way the progress of any bill in which flogging in 
the army was mentioned might be indefinitely 
delayed. 

Another subject on which he knew there was a 
great deal of feeling was the treatment of pris- 
oners. English feeling generally was confined 
to dissatisfaction at the manner in which untried 
prisoners were treated under the prison rules ; 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. hq 

but the Irish Nationalists had a further and even 
more serious grievance : that was, the treatment 
of poHtical prisoners. Almost alone among the 
civilized nations of the earth England had up to 
this time confounded the political and the ordinary 
prisoners. Men of high character, whose only 
offence was to feel for the deep distress and the 
wrongs and miseries of their country and too 
eagerly desire to redress them — men of educa- 
tion, good social position, and refined minds — 
were compelled by the British government to 
herd with the murderer and the bur^rlar and the 
lowest and vilest scum of English society. Ac- 
cordingly Mr. Parnell was able to organize con- 
siderable support both amongst the English and 
Irish members in favor of attacks upon the prison 
discipline of the country. Finally during the 
Conservative reofime the annexation of the Trans- 
vaal was accomplished. It is needless now to 
arc^ue the rioht or the wrongf of that act. The 
iron hand of time has crushed its advocates. 
But when the annexation first took place public 
opinion in England was not ripe, and information 
did not exist. The only persons who were pre- 
pared to give the annexation any effective oppo- 
sition were a small group of Radicals, chief 
among whom was Mr. Leonard Courtney, now 
Deputy Speaker of the House of Commons. 
The forcible conquest of any people against their 
will was naturally repugnant to Irish National- 



120 GLADSTONE-PARNELL. 

ists, and thus they were drawn to the side of the 
Boers from the very first. A junction of their 
forces with their EngHsh Radical alHes made it 
possible to embitter and prolong the fight. 

These preliminary observations will enable the 
reader to understand the line of tactics now 
adopted by the Irish obstructives. Every year 
the House of Commons has to pass what is 
called the " Mutiny Act." This act establishes 
the discipline of the British army ; and under the 
British Constitution the army cannot exist with- 
out the annual passage of this act. The act was 
originally passed for the purpose of maintaining 
the control of Parliament over the standing army. 
If this act should cease to exist the soldier would 
again become a private citizen, subject only to the 
common law, and could no longer be punished 
for disobeying his officers or even quitting the 
colors. The Mutiny Act in the present form con- 
sists of about 193 clauses, and in its old shape it 
was about the same length. But up to the advent 
of Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar it was regarded 
as simply a piece of formality that was hurried 
through in inaudible whispers from the Speaker 
and imaginary ayes and noes of the members of 
the House. In fact, it probably never at any 
period occupied more than ten minutes of the 
many months during which Parliament sits. But 
Mr. Parnell, casting his eyes through its innumer- 
able clauses, discovered the section maintaining 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. ] 23 

flogging in the army. He at once saw the im- 
portance of the point; raised the question again 
and again ; was attacked furiously by the Conser- 
vative Ministers, and for a long time was left alone 
by the members of the English parties, and even 
by the members of the Irish party too. The 
Minister for War at this period was a man now 
known as Lord Cranbrook, but then Mr. Gathorne 
Hardy. Lord Cranbrook is a man of vacuous 
mind and boisterous temper. To watch him well 
there night after night — compelled to argue and 
reargue with tortured reiteration in reply to Mr. 
Parnell and Mr. Biggar — was, to use a colloquial 
expression, like the sight of a hen on a hot grid- 
iron. He would try this form, then that form in 
treating this obstinate and terrible Irish group. 
He was civil, and they replied with equal civility, 
but at the same time with equally lengthy speeches. 
He sulked in silence, and then they moved mo- 
tions for adjournment of the debate or of the 
House that compelled him to answer. He was 
violently angry, and then he exposed himself to 
merciless torture. Night after night, week after 
week, month after month, the Mutiny Bill dragged 
its slow length along, not passing itself and not 
permitting any other measure to pass. 

The same thing took place with regard to other 
measures. The introduction of a Prison's Bill 
removing the control of prisoners from local 
authority to the Home Office, or, as it would be 



124 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

called in America, to the Department of the In- 
terior, afforded an opportunity for raising the 
question of prison discipline. Again night after 
night, week after week, and month after month 
passed, and still the Prison's Bill had not got 
through its innumerable clauses. And, finally, 
there was the Transvaal Bill with its multi- 
farious clauses also, and in its case likewise night 
after night, week after week, and month after 
month almost, and still the bill had not become 
law. 

A few instances will suffice to give a descrip- 
tion of how obstruction is worked. Let it first 
of all be clearly understood that the wilder scenes 
in the House were not those to which Mr. Par- 
nell thinks any future historian ought to really 
devote his chief attention. It was the policy of 
himself and Mr. Biggar (as he told one of the 
writers of this work when they were travelling 
over to Ireland too-ether to org^anize the crreat 
election campaign of 1885) always to avoid stand- 
up fights with the government. The work of 
delaying legislation and wasting time was done 
more effectively in quietness and without any of 
these great struggles. This remark of Mr. Par- 
nell's is quite characteristic of the man's whole 
nature and policy. The showy fights were not 
to his taste half as much as the quiet and unseen 
work, for the quiet and unseen work produced 
practical results, whereas the showy fights some- 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE, , ^25 

times were not so effective. In one respect this 
criticism upon his own poHcy was not altogether 
correct. These showy fights had the effect of 
drawing- the attention of all mankind to the Irish 
question, and had a second, and even equally im- 
portant effect — they "enthused " the Irish race at 
home and abroad. When Mr. Parnell came to 
America in 1880 Wendell Phillips best pithily 
described the effect of Mr. Parnell's action, when 
he said he had come to see the man who had 
made John Bull listen. And the second effect 
is best shown by the extraordinary union of 
the Irish nation in his support at the present 
day. 

With this preface, a few words as to the leading 
and most exciting- scenes will not be unwelcome. 
On March 26, 1877, there was a long discus- 
sion on the better treatment of prisoners. This 
debate came after there had been already weeks 
of discussion, and the patience of the Tories was 
exhausted. Up to this time government business 
used to be done at all kinds of hours ; but Mr. 
Biggar had laid down a great rule that no con- 
tentious matters should come on except at a con- 
venient hour. On this night, accordingly, at i 
o'clock, he moved that progress be reported, 
which in Parliamentary phraseology means that 
the further discussion of the bill shall be post- 
poned. The Irish were thereupon deserted by 
their English allies, who began to grow alarmed ; 



226 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

but Mr. Parnell and Mr. Butt moved motion after 
motion for adjournment in rapid succession, and 
kept up the fight until 3 o'clock, when the gov- 
ernment gave way. On July 25th there was 
another scene of a similar kind — a scene that will 
be read over and over again by the future histo- 
rian as revealing the nature of Mr, Parnell. The 
House was in Committee on that South African 
Bill which involved the annexation of the Trans- 
vaal. Among the Radicals who had allied them- 
selves with Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biofo-ar was Mr. 
Edward Jenkins, author of " Ginx's Baby," a well- 
known work, and at that time a red-hot Radical 
as he is now a fire-eating Tory. Mr. Jenkins was 
accused by one of his own party as having abused 
the forms of the House. When expressions of a 
disorderly character are implied it is the custom 
to move that the words be taken down. Mr. 
Jenkins made this motion, and the moment he sat 
down Mr. Parnell jumped to his feet. "I second 
that motion," he said. " I think the limits of for- 
bearance have been passed. I say that I think 
the limits of forbearance have been passed in 
reofard to the lano-uaofe which honorable members 
opposite have thought proper to address to me 
and to those who act with me." Sir Stafford 
Northcote, now Lord Iddesleigh, was then leader 
of the House, and he moved that the words of 
Mr. Parnell be taken down as suofo-estino- intimi- 
dation to the House. Mr. Parnell was called 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 127 

upon to withdraw his statement, and he refused 
to do so ; he rose to explain amid a tempest of 
jeers and shouts, and then he proceeded to show 
that, as an Irish Nationahst, he felt bound to pro- 
test ag^ainst the annexation of the Transvaal 
against the wish of its inhabitants ; and he then 
went on to say : " Therefore, as an Irishman, 
coming from a country which had experienced to 
the fullest extent the result of Enorlish interfer- 
ence in its affairs, and the consequence of English 
cruelty and tyranny, he felt a special satisfaction 
in preventing and thwarting the intentions of the 
government in respect to this bill." 

The moment he uttered these words it was at 
once thought he had committed himself, and that 
now there was an opportunity for the House 
cominor down and crushino- the intolerable rebel. 
Sir Stafford Northcote moved " that Mr. Parnell 
be suspended until Friday next," and Mr. Parnell 
was called upon to explain. He refused at first 
to take any notice of the cpmmand of the 
Speaker; and at last, when he did get up, al- 
though the House was tempestuous around him, 
he was perfectly calm, and proceeded to analyze 
the motion of Sir Stafford Northcote purely 
from the formal, dry, and technical point of view. 
He declared that the motion was out of order; 
but this was overruled, and he proceeded to justify 
his contention. Then he was called upon to with- 
draw, as is the duty of every member when his 



128 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

own conduct is being discussed ; and he went to 
one of the galleries of the House and looked 
down on the proceedings. 

Sir Stafford Northcote now moved that he 
should be suspended until the following Friday 
for having been guilty of contempt of the House. 
But it soon transpired that Sir Stafford Northcote 
had been too hasty. In the first place it was dis- 
covered that Mr. Parnell had not declared that he 
would obstruct the House, which would have been 
a Parliamentary offence ; but that he would 
thwart the intentions of the government — which 
is a very different thing. When this distinction 
was pointed out the question was at once brought 
within the domain of English party-warfare. The 
Liberals remembered how in their days of power 
their efforts had been paralyzed and their best 
projects destroyed by the obstruction of the 
Tories ; for let it be here remarked that ob- 
struction was not altogether the invention of Mr. 
Parnell. 

In the Gladstone ministry of 1868, when he 
passed some of the greatest measures of his life- 
time, it was the habit of a number of the rowdy 
sports of the Tory party to come down every 
night to the House, dressed in swallow-tails, and 
sometimes bibulous, and by constant talking 
against time, and by continuous motions for ad- 
journment and the like, to thwart the great re- 
forms of the Prime Minister. These occurrences 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 129 

came back to the memory of the Liberals when 
Mr. Parnell was attacked for obstructing the in- 
tentions of the government. They resisted the 
motion of Sir Stafford Northcote accordingly. 
He was obliged to consent to a postponement. 
Mr. Parnell was called down from the gallery ; 
escorted by Mr. Biggar he re-entered the House, 
stood up again, and resumed his speech exactly 
where he had been speaking when the tempest 
began. Finally there was on July 30th and 31st 
a still wilder scene. The government had re- 
solved no longer to tolerate the delay of the 
Transvaal Bill. At this sitting came into opera- 
tion the system afterwards frequently resorted to, 
known as the " system of relays." Under this 
innovation the English parties divided themselves 
up into fragments, some remaining in the House 
while others went home to their beds, and each 
fragment taking its watch in turn. It had been 
resolved that the bill would be forced through the 
House of Commons on this night;, and all neces- 
sary steps had been taken for the purpose of 
carrying this resolution into effect. Mr. Parnell 
and Mr. Biggar knew of these arrangements, but 
they were determined not to be put down by 
them. They fought all through the night; Mr. 
Courtney and other Radicals remaining by their 
side. Finally Mr. Courtney went away declaring 
his equal disgust to the Parnellites and describing 
the ministry as meeting rowdyism by rowdy- 



130 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

Ism. Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar with five otherjp 
went on. At a quarter-past 8 in the morning 
Mr. Parnell retired for a little while to get some 
sleep, and came back at a quarter-past 12 o'clock 
mid-day. At 2 o'clock on Wednesday the strug- 
gle was finally over and the House adjourned at 
6 o'clock, having had a sitting of twenty-six 
hours. 

Ministers wailed and swore ; their followers 
shouted and yelled ; the Speaker menaced ; the 
great big ignorant public outside raved and blas- 
phemed, but there the evil was : and refused to be 
cajoled or frightened or conquered. At last it 
began to be perceived that such a state of things 
was incompatible with the greatness or the safety 
of the empire. The imperial Parliament is the 
heart's core of the empire, and the Irish enemy 
had got a grip of iron upon that heart's core. 

Meantime the action of Mr. Parnell and Mr. 
Biggar in Parliament had been producing entirely 
opposite results in Ireland. The people of that 
country had almost despaired of Parliamentary 
agitation for years, as has been already indicated; 
their representatives in the imperial assembly had 
sold their opinions for money and for office, and 
then had come the hopeless attempts of Mr. Butt, 
ending in humiliation and failure. Now they saw 
two single Irish representatives standing up 
against upward of six hundred Englishmen and 
driving them to failure and to impotence. And 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 131 

as many people were unable to understand what 
at first Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar were driving 
at, they simply imagined they desired to kick up a 
row, and to annoy the enemy. This was enough 
for a people so passionate arwd so down-trodden 
as the Irish then were. They had been them- 
selves racked so much that the mere thought of 
one of theirs licking the omnipotent enemies pro- 
duced an enthusiasm amounting to intoxication. 
This enthusiasm afterwards proved the most 
useful ally Mr. Parnell could obtain. No great 
political fight since the creation of the common- 
wealth has ever come to much until it excited the 
enthusiasm of the people, and in this way, by in- 
spiring men's hearts and minds, bring them up to 
the field of the ballot-box. In Ireland this ardor 
was particularly required. The pinch of daily 
poverty, the hope deferred that makes the heart 
grow sick, and disappointed faith, turns even 
honest men to cynics. 

All these things had been a terrible obstacle in 
the way of any man who attempted to rouse the 
people to united action; but this now disappeared, 
and Mr. Parnell at last had a united Democracy 
ready to do anything and to follow him anywhere. 
But his triumph was yet far from complete. The 
enemies he found the most potent and most ma- 
lignant were those among his own countrymen 
and in the bosom of his own party. Mr. Butt for 
some time kept silent with regard to the tactics 



132 



GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 



of Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar; but finally he 
could restrain himself no longer, and he de- 
nounced them more than once in the House of 
Commons. These attacks were cheered to the 
echo by the members of that assembly ; and Mr. 
Butt, who had been denounced so long as an im- 
practicable rebel, was now lauded to the skies as 
a saeacious statesman. While the Irish leader 
thus led the assault there were several of the 
meaner fry of the party only too ready to follow 
the evil example. Mr. Biggar's manly courage 
and lofty disregard for the attacks and insults and 
the " convenience " of the House that was turning 
upon his country, was characterized as vulgar and 
insolent. " Irish members," said one so-called 
Irish Nationalist, " ought to be gendemen first, 
and Irishmen afterwards ; " others apologized to 
the House in the most servile manner for the 
delinquencies of their colleague, and finally an 
attempt was made to throw them out of the party. 
But when Mr. Parnell and Mr. Bio-aar returned 
to Ireland after their first great obstruction cam- 
paign of 1877, they were present at a meeting in 
the Rotunda, which was also attended by Mr. 
Butt ; and the extraordinary and violent enthu- 
siasm of their reception proved that, however 
much Mr. Butt commanded the intellig-ence of 
Ireland, Mr. Parnell and Mr. Big-ofar were masters 
of the affections of the Irish people. 

A short time after this another and equally sig- 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. I33 

nificant incident took place. The Irish in Eng- 
land and Scotland, as is now known, form a very 
important factor in the politics of Ireland. They 
control constituencies in England and Scotland 
variously estimated from forty to sixty. They 
have for years been banded together in organi- 
zations under different names, but for the purpose 
of helping the Irish people at home to secure their 
legislative independence. At this period the Irish 
organization in England was known as the Home 
Rule Confederation, and of this association Mr. 
Butt was the President. The Irish Nationalists 
settled in the English and Scotch towns, by their 
contact, and sometimes by their collision with 
their English and Scotch fellow-citizens, profess a 
national creed more robust and even more forcible 
than that of the Irish Nationalists at home. The 
moment Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar appeared on 
the horizon the Irish in England appreciated accu- 
rately the merits of the struggle, took up the side 
of Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar industriously, and 
it was their prompt assistance that enabled both 
those gentlemen to go on with the fight. It was 
resolved to mark the preference of the people in 
England for the policy of Mr. Parnell by electing 
him to the place hitherto held by Mr. Butt; and 
at a conference held in 1877 Mr. Parnell was 
elected President of the Home Rule Confedera- 
tion in place of the last leader. These things 
gave warning to the enemies of Mr. Parnell and 



134 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

Mr. Biggar that they were not to be attacked with 
impunity, and that any Irish member who assailed 
them would have to account with his constituents 
by and by. But the event which finally consoli- 
dated their power was the action of the govern- 
ment itself. And it has been seen that the 
attempt of Mr. Butt to produce any reform in 
Irish administration, however small, had met with 
prompt rejection by the Conservative ministry. 
But when they were brought face to face with the 
stoppage of all their business through Irish ob- 
struction, they made an entire change in their 
policy. For years Ireland had been demanding a 
system of intermediate education, more in accord- 
ance with the wishes of its people than that which 
then existed. This demand had met with scornful 
rejection ; but in the session of 1878 the Conserva- 
tive ministry brought in an intermediate Education 
Bill, which conceded a large portion of the Irish 
demand. In the year 1879 again the administra- 
tion brought forward a bill dealing^ with the 
question of Irish university education, and grant- 
ing to Ireland a scheme defective, but still one far 
beyond anything yet attempted. Mr. Parnell has 
often used the homely phrase, " The proof of the 
pudding is in the eating," as distinguishing his 
policy from that of Mr. Butt. To him the gain 
of those two measures was of enormous impor- 
tance. It showed that the policy of obstruction 
was not a policy of mere anger or annoyance, or 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. I35 

to kick Up a row ; but that It was a policy with 
definite and practical ends, and that those prac- 
tical and definite ends would be attained. It was 
perfectly vain for Mr. Butt to any more denounce 
a policy so practical as likely to lead to a revo- 
lution. 

Mr. Butt now virtually retired from the leader- 
ship of the Home Rule party. His resignation 
of his position was not accepted, and he was in- 
duced to retain at least the nominal lead of the 
party. He accepted on the condition that his 
attendance should not be regular ; this condition 
was for the purpose of allowing him to devote his 
attention to his legal practice. Like O'Connell, 
he had virtually to abandon his profession when 
he undertook the duties of parliamentary leader- 
ship. In this way his already vast load of debt 
had been increased, and his hours of waking and 
sleeping were tortured by duns, threats of pro- 
ceedings, and all the shifts and worries of the im- 
pecunious. His quarrel with the " obstructives " 
had now come to Interfere with his financial as 
well as with his political position. A national 
subscription had been started. In Ireland the 
response of the people to the needs of their 
leaders has often been bountifully generous, 
more often than perhaps in any other country ; 
but those who depend on the assistance of the 
public are subject to the chances of fortune that 
always dog dependents on the popular mood. 



136 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

There are times and seasons when even the most 
popular leader will not receive one-tenth of the 
support which would be given in more favorable 
circumstances, and the popular leader dependent 
for his living on the pence of the people leads an 
existence not unlike the life of the gambler or the 
speculator. The support of the people had been 
definitely transferred from Mr. Butt to Mr. Par- 
nell, and financial support followed the tide of 
popular favor. The subscription was a miserable 
failure, and Butt was now without any resource 
but his profession. 

But the time had nearly passed when he could 
do anything in his profession. The weakness of 
the heart's action, which had pursued him from 
his early years, was rapidly becoming worse, and 
in 1878 there were many warnings of the ap- 
proaching end. In that year he made the re- 
mark to a friend, speaking of some troublesome 
symptoms, " Is not this the curfew bell, warning 
us that the light must be put out and the fire ex- 
tingfuished ? " 

Still he foueht on, attendingf the law courts 
daily, and now and then joining in a desperate 
attempt to meet his triumphant political op- 
ponents. 

His last appearance was at a meeting in Moles- 
worth Hall on February 4, 1879. He was at this 
time engaged in the cause celebj^e of Bagot v. 
Bagot. The appearance of the old man at this 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. /J^ST 

meeting- has left a deep and sad impression on 
the minds of all those who were present. When 
he came in the look of death was on his face ; the 
death of his hopes and his spirits had already 
come. There were many faces among those 
around that once had lighted at his look and that 
now turned away in estrangement. " Won't you 
speak to me ? " he said in trembling tones to one 
man who had been his associate in many fights 
and many stirring scenes. But his old persuasive 
eloquence was still as fresh as ever, and he de- 
fended his whole policy with a vigor, plausibility, 
and" closeness of reasoning that were worthy of 
his best days. 

The next day he fell sick. The heart had at 
last refused to do its work ; the brain could no 
longer be supplied ; he lingered for nearly a month 
with his great intellect obscured, and on May 5, 
1879, he died. 

The Irish people retained a kindly feeling for 
him to the end, but he had unquestionably out- 
lived his usefulness ; and his triumph over Mr. 
Parnell at this period of Irish history would have 
been a national calamity that might have brought 
hideous disasters. Sufficient time has elapsed 
since his death to pronounce a calm estimate of 
his career. The unwisdom of his policy was 
largely due undoubtedly to the difficulties of his 
circumstances. Ke had a wretched party — with 
one honest and unselfish man to five self-seekers 



138 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

— but there is reason to believe that he accom- 
phshed more than any other man in the work of 
laying the foundations of the great party of the 
future; and, we may believe that he, more than 
any other man, prepared the people for the new 
struQfJjle for self-QOvernment. It was his mis- 
fortune to come at the unhappy interval of trans- 
ition from the bad and old and hopeless order of 
things to a new and a better and brighter epoch. 
Between the era of 1865 and the era of 1878 Ire- 
land was, so far as constitutional movements 
were concerned, in a political morass. It was 
Butt that carried the country over that danger- 
ous ground. His step was light, and uncertain, 
and timid; but the ground over which he had to 
pass was treacherous, perilous, and full of Invis- 
ible and bottomless pools. It was a very mixed 
party Butt had gathered around him — a party of 
patriots and of place-hunters, of men, young, 
earnest, and fresh for struggle, and of men physi- 
cally exhausted and morally dead, a party of life- 
long Nationalists and of veteran lacqueys. There 
was a tragic contrast between such a party and 
the renewed and sublime and noble hopes of the 
nation. This fact must always in fairness be 
recollected when the policy of Butt is criticised. 
That policy was in many respects perfectly wrong 
and full of the most serious dangers to Ireland, 
but it was a policy that was largely forced upon 
him by the weakness and worthlessness of the 
elements around him. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. I39 

It was undoubtedly well for Ireland that Butt 
died at this moment. The country was again 
approaching" one of those crises the outcome of 
which was to mean either a re-plunge into the 
slough of despond, such as she had been im- 
mersed in from 1845 ^o ^865, or the start of a 
new era of hope, effort, and prosperity. If Butt 
had survived, and had retained the leadership, 
there is little doubt that he would have been in- 
capable of rising to the height of the argument, 
and would have counselled shilly-shallying where 
shilly-shallying meant death, and moderation 
where extreme courses were required to avert a 
national disaster, wholesale, violent, and perhaps 
fatal ; or, if he had not retained the full leader- 
ship by the destruction of the rising efforts of 
Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar, and if he and they 
still remained in political life together, and to 
some extent in political alliance, then there would 
have been divided counsels ; and the time was 
one for unity. All the meanness and servility 
and half-heartedness of the country would have 
found in Butt a rallying-point, and the crisis was 
one that demanded all the energy and courage 
and concentrated purpose of the country. 

Isaac Butt was the son of a Protestant clergy- 
man of the South of Ireland. He claimed de- 
scent from Berkeley, and this partly accounted for 
the devotion to metaphysical studies which char- 
acterized him throughout his busy life. His 



X40 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

mother was a remarkable woman ; a great story- 
teller among other things. The place of his birth 
was near the Gap of Barnesmore, a line of hills 
which is rarely if ever without shadow — not un- 
like Butt's own life. It was one of his theories 
that people born amid mountain scenery are 
more imaginative than the children of the plains. 
His own nature was certainly imaginative in the 
highest degree, with the breadth and height of 
imaginative men, and also with their doubtings, 
despondency, and dread of the Unseen. 

For many years he stood firmly by the prin- 
ciples of Orange Toryism, and he had the career 
which then belonged to every young Irish Prot- 
estant of ability. He went to Trinity College, 
which at that time presented large prizes, but 
presented them to those only who had the good 
luck to belong to the favored faith. Butt's ad- 
vancement was rapid. He was not many years 
a student when he was raised to a Professorship 
of Political Economy. When he went to the Bar 
his success came with the same ease and rapidity. 
He was but thirty-one years of age, and had 
been only six years at the Bar, when he was 
made a Queen's Counsel. In politics, however, 
he had made his chief distinction. It will be re- 
membered that when O'Connell sought to obtain 
a declaration in favor of Repeal of the Union 
from the newly emancipated Corporation of 
Dublin, Butt was selected by his co-religionists, 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 141 

young as he was, to meet the Great Liberator, 
and his speech was as good a one as could be 
made on the side of the maintenance of the 
Union. Of great though irregular industry, 
deeply devoted to study, with a mind of large 
grasp and a singularly retentive memory, he was 
intimately acquainted with all the secrets of his 
profession ; and throughout his life was acknowl- 
edged to be a fine lawyer alike in his native 
country and in England. In his early Parlia- 
mentary days he belonged to the English Protec- 
tionist party, and was among the ablest spokes- 
men of the creed in its last and forlorn struggles. 
His entrance into Parliament aggravated many 
of his weaknesses. It separated him from his 
profession in Dublin, and thereby increased his 
already great pecuniary liabilities. His character 
in many respects was singularly feeble. Some 
of his weaknesses leaned to virtue's side, and 
many of the stories told of him suggest a re- 
semblance to the character of Alexandre Dumas 
pere. He borrowed largely and lent largely, and 
often in the midst of his sorest straits lavished 
on others the money which he required himself, 
and which often did not belong to him. Through- 
out his life he was, as a consequence, pursued by 
the bloodhound of vast and insurmountable debt. 
At least once he was for several months in the 
debtors' prison, and there used to be terrible 
stories— even in the days when he was an English 



142 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

member of Parliament — of unpaid cabmen and 
appearances at the police courts. 

Butt was a man of supreme political genius: 
one of those whose right to intellectual eminence 
is never questioned, but willingly conceded with- 
out effort on his side, without opposition on the 
part of others. But the irregularities of his life 
shut him out from official employment, and he 
saw a long series of inferiors reach to position 
and wealth while he remained poor and neglected. 
There is a considerable period of his life which 
is almost total eclipse. There came an Indian 
summer when he returned to the practice of his 
profession in Ireland, and once more joined in 
the fortunate struggles of his countrymen. 

The character of this remarkable man presents 
several points of remarkable, though melancholy, 
interest. His weakness with regard to pecuniary 
matters has been already touched upon ; he had, 
besides, all the other foibles, as well as the charms, 
of an easy-going, good-natured, pliant tempera- 
ment. Though his faults were grossly exagger- 
ated — for instance, many intimates declare that 
they never saw him, even during the acquaintance 
of years, once under the influence of drink — he 
had, unquestionably, made many sacrifices on the 
altars of the gods of indulgence. It may be that 
with him, as with so many others, the pursuit of 
pleasure was but an attempt at flight from de- 
spair. He was all his life troubled by an unusually 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. I43 

slow circulation of the blood ; and it may be added 
that the central note of his character was melan- 
choly. In his early days he was a constant con- 
tributor to the " Dublin University Magazine," 
and his tales have a vein of the morbid melan- 
choly that runs through the youthful letters of 
Alfred de Musset. Imaginativeness did much to 
weaken his resolve. Curious stories are told 
of the superstitions that ran through his nature. 
Though a Protestant, he used to carry some of 
the religious symbols — medals, for instance^ — 
which Catholics wear, and he would not go into a 
law court without his medals. There are still 
more ludicrous stories of his standing appalled or 
delighted before such accidents as putting on his 
clothes the wrong way, and other trivialities. 
Then the demon of debt haunted him all his life. 
He had a considerable practice when he entered 
Parliament, and membership of Parliament is 
entirely incompatible with the retention of his 
entire practice by an Irish barrister. He was 
throughout his leadership divided between a 
dread dilemma : either he had to neglect Parlia- 
ment, and then his party was endangered ; or 
neglect his practice, and then bring ruin on him- 
self and a family entirely unprovided for, deeply 
loving and deeply loved. There is no Nemesis 
so relentless as that which dogs pecuniary reck- 
lessness ; the spendthrift is also the drudge ; and 
in his days of old age, weakness, and terrible 



X44 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

political responsibilities, Butt had to fly between 
London and Dublin, to stop up of nights, alter- 
nately reading briefs and drafting Acts of Parlia- 
ment: to make his worn and somewhat unwieldy 
frame do the double work, which would have tried 
the nerves and strength of a giant, or the limber 
joints and freshness of early youth. Butt's frame 
was worn out when, to outward appearances, he 
was still vioforous. The hand of incurable disease 
for years held him tight, and the dark death, of 
which he had so great a horror, was continually 
menacinor him. 

On the other hand he had great qualities of 
leadership. He was unquestionably a head and 
shoulders above most of his followers, able though 
so many of them were ; and he was, next to Mr. 
Gladstone, the greatest Parliamentarian of his 
day. Then he had the large toleration and the 
easy temper that make leadership a light burden 
to followers; and the burden of leadership has to 
be light when — as in an Irish party — the leader 
has no offices or salaries to bestow. And, above 
all, he had the modesty and the simplicity of real 
greatness. Every man had his ear, every man 
his kindly word and smile, and some his strong 
affection. Thus it was that Butt was to many the 
most lovable of men ; and more than one political 
opponent, impelled by principle to regard him as 
the most serious danger to the Irish cause, struck 
him hard, but wept as he dealt the blow. 



THE GREAT IRigH STRUGGLfi. 145 

This sketch of the character of Butt will show 
the points in which he was unsuitable for the work 
before him. He was the leader of a small party 
in an assembly to which it was hateful in opinion 
and feeling and temperament. A party in such 
circumstances can only make its way by audacious 
aggressiveness, dogi^ed resistance, relentless pur- 
pose ; and for such Parliamentary forlorn hopes 
the least suited of leaders was a man whom a 
single groan of impatience could hurt and one 
word of compliment delight. 

There was one question above all others in 
which he took an interest, and which he always 
kept in his own hand. This was the Land ques- 
tion. Butt's record on the Land question is, in- 
deed, one of the most honorable chapters in his 
whole career. Harassed as he was by debt and 
by the demands of a large professional practice, 
he found time to write a whole series of pamphlets 
in defence of the claims of the tenants ; and almost 
immediately after the passage of the Land Act of 
1870 he wrote a large volume on the Act, which 
is distinguished by legal learning, lucidity of style, 
and extraordinary subtlety of reasoning. He was, 
too, one of the first to discover the worthlessness 
of Mr. Gladstone's first Land Act; and he never 
ceased, throughout his career as leader, to agitate 
for its amendment. 

There is much reason to believe that the future 

historian of Ireland, writing in a time when the 
9 



i [CJ GLADSTOI^— PARNELL. 

heat of our present conflicts shall have abated, will 
assign to Isaac Butt a far higher place in the long 
list of Irish patriots than most of his contem- 
porary workers would be willing to concede him. 

When we attempt to estimate the character of 
a man like Mr. Butt, we must take into the ac- 
count not only his temperament and his times, 
but also his ancestry, early associations, and per- 
sonal history. Now Mr. Butt entered public life 
as a Tory and an Orangeman, and was very early 
prominent as an antagonist to Daniel O'Connell. 
The fact that he allowed the arguments of his op- 
ponents gradually to win him over to a position 
in many respects more advanced than that of 
O'Connell himself proves conclusively his fair- 
mindedness, and his love of justice. Daniel 
O'Connell never looked at the land question in 
the light of our later position as Irish patriots. 
He was first of all a great lawyer ; and he looked 
(as did all the lawyers of his time) upon property 
in land, as recognized by law, as being a thing 
more sacred and inviolable than almost any sec- 
ular thing in the world. Butt, however, knew well 
that upon the proper solution of the land problem 
must depend the whole question of Ireland's hap- 
piness or woe. 

There were in his lifetime those who con- 
demned Mr. Butt as being too facile and pliable. 
This view has some apparent justification in his 
career, yet it is in point of fact an opinion very 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 147 

unjust to his memory. Mr. Butt fought the good 
fight, not because he enjoyed fighting, but be- 
cause he felt that fighting was an imperative duty. 
The honor due him becomes far greater when 
we consider the circumstances of his education, 
temper and environment. 

In the midst of the struggle between the active 
section, as the Obstructives were called, of the 
Irish party, and the loggards, or trimmers, or 
traitors, who formed the bulk of that party, Mr. 
Butt died. Mr. Parnell was still at this time a 
young man and had only made a short record. 
The country, which was daily gathering around 
him, was not yet quite certain of his power to 
take the onerous position of leader. In addition 
to all this the then Home Rule party consisted 
mostly of men who disliked him personally and 
loathed his policy. Under these circumstances it 
was vain to think of his being appointed the 
leader; and Mr. William Shaw was elected as a 
stop-gap leader. The reasons for this election 
were, that Mr. Shaw was a Protestant, supposed 
to be very rich, and that he had a moderate mind 
and an easy and genial temperament. Under the 
rules of the Irish party the leader is elected for 
only one year, and the time was bound soon to 
come when Mr. Shaw w^ould have once more to 
submit his claims for the position of chief. The 
selection was perhaps the best that could have 
been made at the time. Mr. Shaw was not with- 



148 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

out many admirable qualities. He, however, was 
too cautious and timid, and had not imagination 
or mind large enough for tlie sublime and gigantic 
evils that had now to be grappled with once and 
for all. The year 1879 marked a crisis in the 
history of Ireland. 

Owing to circumstances which will be presently 
detailed the potato crop has occupied in Irish life 
a position of extraordinary importance. With- 
out any exaggeration the potato crop may be 
described as the thin partition which used to di- 
vide large masses of the Irish people from whole- 
sale starvation. The years 1877-78 had both 
been years in which the crops had largely failed 
to come up to the expectations of the people. 
The following table will prove this fact conclu- 
sively : 

Value of Potato Crop. 

1876 160,321,910 

1877 26,355,1 10 

1878 35.897.560 

It will therefore be seen that by 1879 there 
had been two bad seasons; and three bad seasons 
in Ireland as it then was were sufficient to make 
all the difference between the chance of weather- 
ing the storm and going down in awful ship- 
wreck. But the year 1879 disappointed all the 
expectations that had been formed of it. The 
potato crop, instead of rising, went down to a 
lower point than it had reached even in the dis- 
astrous year of 1877. The figures are: 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE 149 

Value of Potato Crop. 
1879 ^15,705,440 

In other words two-thirds of the potato crop 
had not come to maturity, and in some parts of 
the country it had entirely disappeared. Thus 
Ireland stood face to face with famine. The time 
had come now for makino- a choice between 
either of two courses, each of which presented 
enormous difficulties and terrible dangers. 
Either the country had to remain quiet and sub- 
missive to the decree of British law and of Irish 
landlords, when the result would probably be a 
considerable amount of starvation, an enormous 
number of evictions, and an immense amount of 
emigration, as well as the break-down of all 
spirits and of all hopes in the people. The other 
course was that of passive resistance to the law 
of eviction, and of strong agitation which would 
make the landlords pause in their tyranny, and 
compel the British Parliament to bestow reform. 
The latter course could not be^ entered upon 
without the risk of violent collision with the law 
and the chances of penal servitude and perhaps 
death on the gallows ; and above all, without the 
sickeninof dread when the hour of trial came that 
the people might prove unequal to the opportun- 
ity, and allow themselves to be again driven back 
by the dark night of hunger and of despair. If 
Mr. Butt had remained at the head of affairs it 
is more than probable that the first of these two 



150 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

courses would have been adopted. It was the 
only course that recommended itself to timid and 
constitutional lawyers like him, and to all the 
other large sections of society in Ireland, that 
always wish to avoid open collision with the 
great powers of the British government. But 
Mr. Parnell is a very different type of man to 
Mr. Butt. His iron nerve and his daring mind 
induced him to believe that the bold course was 
the true course, that eviction should be grappled 
with, that the landlords and the law should be 
encountered, and that in this way the threatened 
famine of 1879, in place of being a night of 
darkness and despair, might make a morning of 
hope and resurrection to the Irish people. 

His choice of weapons was largely influenced 
by a very remarkable man who at about this time 
began to have considerable influence over the 
course of Irish affairs. This was Michael Davitt. 
The life of Michael Davitt is in many respects like 
that of hundreds of thousands of Irishmen. Evic- 
tion, Exile, Poverty — these are its main features. 

Michael Davitt was born at Straid, in the 
County Mayo, in the year 1846. That year, as 
will be seen afterwards, was one of Ireland's 
darkest hours. Famine was in the country; 
thousands were dying in every hospital, work- 
house, and jail, and the roads were literally thick 
with the corpses of the unburied. The landlords 
were aggravating this terrible state of things by 




MICHAEL DAVITT. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 153 

their merciless eviction of all their helpless ten- 
antry whose means of living and power of paying 
their rent had been entirely destroyed by this 
economic cyclone. The father of Davitt was one 
of these victims. Davitt's earliest recollection is 
of an eviction under circumstances of cruelty and 
heartlessness. He was but four years of age 
when his father was turned out of his house and 
farm. It was the curious irony of fate that he 
afterwards held a Land League meeting at Straide, 
and that the platform from which he spoke stood 
on the very spot where he had first seen light. 
His family emigrated to Lancashire, where to-day 
there are thousands of other Irish families who 
sought refugfe in Eng-Hsh homes from their own 
country. The fate of the Irish in England has 
been one of the many tragedies in the sorrowful 
history of the Irish race. Coming mostly from 
the country and from rural pursuits, the Irish 
exiles were thrown into the midst of large manu- 
facturing industries. For such industries of course 
they had had no training whatever. The result 
was that the only work they could obtain was the 
work which was hardest and worst paid. To- 
day, if you pass through a Lancashire, Northum- 
brian, or Scotch district you will find that the 
stokers in the gas-works, the laborers in the blast 
furnace and chemical works are nearly all men of 
Irish birth and descent — people or the sons of 
people who were driven from Ireland by hunger 



154 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

and by eviction. In his early years Davitt led 
the same life as that of the other Irishmen around 
him. As soon as he was able to work he had to 
be sent to the mill in order to eke out the scanty 
subsistence of his family. While employed in 
the mill his arm was caught in the machinery and 
wrenched off. This misfortune, terrible as it was, 
perhaps influenced his life for the future. He 
was taken away from the mill, and was able in 
this way to devote time to the improvement of 
his mind. He was living at this time at Has- 
lingden, a town in the Lancashire constituency, 
which is represented at present by the Marquis 
of Hartington. He was employed there for some 
years in a stationer's shop and afterwards as a 
letter-carrier. In Haslingden there is a large 
Irish population, and the young Irish boy grew up 
amid Irish surroundings and Irish influences. 
However, it was not until one night he attended 
a meeting addressed by an Irish orator that he 
really began to have strong political opinions. 
This orator told him the history of his country, 
of her wrongs, of her plans, of her hopes. The 
whole soul of the young man was fired ; his im- 
pressions were crystallized into convictions, and 
from that time forward he was an ardent Irish 
Nationalist. It is a singular circumstance that 
the man who gave to Davitt this new birth 
of conviction afterwards proved recreant to the 
cause; for the orator who first made Davitt 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 155 

an Irish Nationalist was Mr. John O'Connor 
Power. 

In those days there was no place in politics 
for an honest Irish Nationalist save in the ranks 
of the revolutionary party. That party found 
some of its bravest and fiercest recruits among 
the Irish in England, and Davitt was one of them. 
The EnofHsh Branch of the Fenian organization 
contemplated some of the most desperate enter- 
prises of the movement. Among many other 
plots they resolved to make an attack on Chester 
Castle, where there used to be a large supply of 
arms. Davitt, although very young at the time, 
was one of those who were present at the tryst- 
ing-place. He escaped arrest at this time, and 
then he became prominent by his energy and 
talents, and after a while was one of the foremost 
organizers of the movement. He was mainly 
concerned in the purchase of arms and their 
transportation to Ireland to prepare men for the 
fight, which was then supposed to be ripening 
fast. One evening he was arrested at a London 
railway station and was brought before the courts 
on the charge of levying war against the Queen. 
The main evidence against him was that of 
Corydon, an infamous ruffian, who first joined and 
then sold the organization. From the onset 
Davitt knew there was no escape. In his "Leaves 
of a Prison Diary," which contains an account of 
his life, he describes his feelings at this terrible 
hour: 



156 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

" I recollect," he writes, " having occupied the 
half-hour during which the jury was considering 
whether to believe the evidence of respectable 
witnesses or accept that of a creature who can be 
truly designated a salaried perjurer in my case, 
in reading the inscriptions which covered the 
walls of the cell — the waiting-room of fate — in 
Newgate prison, to which I was conducted while 
my future was being decided in the jury- room 
overhead. Every available inch of the blackened 
mortar contained, in few words, the name of the 
writer, where he belonged to, the crime with 
which he was charged, the dread certainty of 
conviction, the palpitating hopes of acquittal, or 
the language of indifference or despair. What 
thoughts must have swept through the minds of 
the thousands who have passed through that cell 
during the necessarily brief stay within its walls! 
Loss of home, friends, reputation, honor, name — 
to those who had such to lose ; and the impend- 
ing sentence of banishment from the world of 
pleasure or business for years — perhaps forever 
— with the doom of penal degradation, toil, and 
suffering in addition ! 

"Yet, despite all these feelings that crowd 
upon the soul in these short, fleeting, terrible 
moments of criminal life, the vanity — or what 
shall I term it? — of the individual prompts him 
to occupy most of them in giving a short record 
of himself, his crime or imputed offence, scratched 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 157 

upon these blackened walls, for other succeeding 
unfortunates to read ! 

" Most of these inscriptions were in slang, 
showing that the majority of those who had writ- 
ten them were of the criminal order, and guilty 
of some, if not of the particular, offence for which 
they were doomed to await the announcement 
of their punishment within that chamber of dread 
expectancy. Not a few, however, consisted of 
declarations of innocence, invocations of Divine 
interposition, appeals to justice, and confidence 
in the ' laws of my country ; ' while others denoted 
the absence of all thoughts except those of wife, 
children, or sweetheart. Some who were await- 
ing that most terrible of all sentences — death — 
could yet think of tracing the outlines of a scaffold 
amidst the mass of surrounding inscriptions, with 
a ' Farewell to Life' scrawled underneath. Giv- 
ing way to the seeming inspiration of the place, 
and picturing jurors' faces round that dismal den 
— dark and frowning, into which the sun's rays 
never entered, lit only by a noisy jet of gas which 
seemed to sing the death-song of the liberty of 
all who entered the walls which it had blackened 
— I stood upon the form which extended round 
the place and wrote upon a yet uncovered por- 
tion of the low sloping roof: 'M. D. expects ten 
years for the crime of being an Irish Nationalist 
and the victim of an informer's perjury, — yidy, 
1870,' From the ghastly look of the place, the 



158 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

penalty I was about to undergo, and my own 
thoughts at the moment, I might have most ap- 
propriately added the well-known lines from the 
' Inferno,' which invite those who enter its portals 
of despair to abandon hope." 

The anticipations in this heart's cry proved cor- 
rect. Davitt was found guilty and was sentenced 
to fifteen years' penal servitude. Replying in the 
month of May last (1886) to Lord Randolph 
Churchill's incitements to civil war, Mr. Davitt 
gave a scathing reply, and at the same time a 
neat summary of his miseries in penal servitude. 

"The treason for which I was tried and con- 
victed in 1870 was more justifiable in reason and 
less culpable to law than the treason which this 
ex-cabinet minister commits in telling the people 
of Ulster that they will be entitled to appeal to 
the arbitrament of force if the imperial Parliament 
passes a certain law. In 1870, when I was tried 
in London, the Castle system of government still 
obtained in Ireland — a system of rule which, by 
the measure which the Prime Minister of Entjland 
— (loud cheers) — has introduced for the better 
government of Ireland, is now proved to be un- 
just and unconstitutional. Nevertheless, I was 
sentenced to fifteen years' penal servitude for 
sending- firearms to Ireland to be used agfainst a 
system of government in that country which was 
not objectionable to the minority, but which was 
looked upon by the mass of the Irish people as a 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. ^59 

tyranny. (Applause.) Now, what \vill be the 
position of this precious ex-minister of the Crown 
in 1887 if he be true to his words in sending fire- 
arms to the North of Ireland? (Applause.) 
Lord Churchill will be in insurrection asfainst his 
own Queen and country. (Hear, hear.) He 
will not be in revolt against a despotic Castle 
system, but against the legally-constituted Irish 
Parliament, and, therefore, this treason which he 
commits by anticipation will have no earthly 
justification or extenuation. (Cheers.) Well, I 
will give the noble lord some friendly advice to- 
night — (laughter) — based upon a good deal of 
prison experience. (Renewed laughter.) I will 
assume that in 1887, when Paddington's lordly 
representative will become a rebel against impe- 
rial authority, Mr. Gladstone will be Prime Minis- 
ter of England. (Cheers.) He was England's 
Prime Minister in 1870, when I left the Old 
Bailey to undergo penal servitude. If Lord 
Randolph Churchill receive the same sentence 
for a similar offence without any justification for 
committing it, I will tell him what he will have to 
undergo. (Hear, hear.) If he is treated in 
prison as I was under Mr. Gladstone's adminis- 
tration, he will be chained to a cart with murder- 
ers and pick-pockets for the first four years of 
imprisonment, and if he goes through that ordeal 
without quarrelling with his new chums — (laughter 
and loud applause) — it may be his good fortune, 



1 QO GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

as it was mine, to be in six years' time promoted 
to the position of turning a wringing machine in 
the Dartmoor convict laundry. (Loud laughter 
and applause.) Well, after seven years and eight 
months' imprisonment, I hope he will be released 
on ticket-of-leave, as I was, and then, perhaps, it 
may be my duty, rising from the opposite benches 
of the Irish Parliament — (cheers) — to do for him 
what he did for me in 1881, when he called upon 
the then Chief Secretary of Ireland to send me 
back to penal servitude to undergo fifteen months' 
additional imprisonment." (Cheers.) 

Several attempts were made to procure Davitt's 
release from prison, which attempts failed for 
years ; but at last, on the morning of December 
19, 1877, the governor of Dartmoor jail brought 
Davitt the information that he was a free man. 
The release, however, was not unconditional. He 
was let out on a ticket-of-leave. This at the 
time might well have appeared nothing more than 
a hollow formality. But it afterwards proved to 
be a grim safeguard for Davitt's political orthodoxy 
in the future. After his release he took to lectur- 
ing. In the course of time his family had been 
further scattered, and having first left Ireland for 
England they had subsequently quitted England 
for America. They were settled in Manayunk, 
Pennsylvania. Davitt went over to America to 
see his mother and sister, and also probably with 
the view to his career thereafter. When he ar- 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 161 

rived in America he had not more than a few 
acquaintances in the country. The chief of these 
was Mr. James O'Kelly, then connected with the 
New York press, now a member of the British 
House of Commons. 

At this time there had come an important crisis 
in the history of Irish-American organizations. 
A large number of the men who had been en- 
gaged in revolutionary effort had made up their 
mind that the liberation of Ireland could not for 
the moment be advanced by immediate resort to 
physical force. Several of the men of the 
keenest intelligence and of thoughtful and states- 
manlike minds had come to the conclusion that 
other devices should be employed. Of these men 
perhaps the most noteworthy was Mr. John 
Devoy. It required some courage to preach to 
men of the revolutionary party any doctrine save 
the attempt to liberate Ireland by force of arms. 
Constitutional agitators had been proved in so 
many cases liars and traitors that constitutional agi- 
tation was regarded by vast numbers as a delusion 
and a snare ; and any plan that had even the least 
approach to constitutional agitation in its character 
was condemned beforehand. But some of the 
leading spirits of the revolutionary party were 
men above the cant of faction or the emptiness of 
phrases. They saw that the Land question was, 
after all, the fundamental question with the vast 
mass of the Irish people ; that that was the ques- 



162 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

tion which touched their hearts, their homes, and 
their daily Hves, and that accordingly, if some 
movement were started in which the land would 
play a prominent part, the adhesion of the farmers 
to the National movement would be easily ob- 
tained. Revolutionists were accordingly advised 
to take up the agitation of the Land question as 
the best means by which they could reach the 
goal of National revival. This was known at one 
time as " the new departure." 

Mr. Davitt was brought into contact with the 
men of this new school ; his mind was captured 
by the idea ; and when he returned to Ireland it was 
with a determination to put this new plan of action 
into operation. For a year he met with but little 
success ; the revolutionaries would not accept his 
plan because it was too constitutional. The con- 
stitutionalists rejected it as too revolutionary. 

The period of Davitt's arrival in Ireland was 
the period of dark distress from the failure of the 
crop which has been already described. Another 
event which lent force to Davitt's ideas was the 
action of the land-owners. They proceeded to 
deal with their tenantry in exactly the same way 
as they had done at all previous periods of dis- 
tress. That is to say, they took advantage of 
their tenants' distress to drive them out of their 
holdings. This will be seen more plainly by put- 
ting side by side the increase of the distress and 
the number of evictions ; 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE 1(33 

No. of Evictions 
Vear. Value of Potato Crop. by Families. 

1876 ^60,321,910 1,269 

1877 26,355,110 1.323 

1878 35.897,560 1,749 

1879 15,705,440 2,667 

From this short table it may be gathered that 
the number of evictions increased in exact pro- 
portions to the deepening of the distress. Davitt 
saw how this state of things could be used for 
the purpose of advancing his ideas. He after- 
wards thus describes his mode of action : 

" I saw the priests, the farmers, and the local 
leaders of the Nationalists. I inquired and found 
that the seasons of 1877 ^"^ 1878 had been poor, 
and that a famine was expected in 1879. All the 
farmers and cotters were in debt to the landlords 
and the shopkeepers. One day in Claremorris, 
County Mayo — it was in March, 1879 — I was in 
company with John W. Walsh, of Balla, who was 
a commercial traveller. He is now in Australia 
in the interests of the Land League. He knew 
the circumstances of every shopkeeper in the west 
of Ireland — their poverty and debt, and the pov- 
erty of the people. He gave me a good deal of 
valuable information. I met some farmers from 
Irishtown, a village outside of Claremorris, and 
talked to them about the crops and the rent. 
Everywhere I heard the same story, and I at last 
made a proposition that a meeting be called in 
Irishtown to give expression to the grievances of 

the tenant farmers, and to demand a reduction of 

10 



164 GLADSTONE—PARNEl.L. 

the rent. We were also to urge the abolition 
of landlordism. I promised to have the speakers 
there, and they promised to get the audience. I 
wrote to Thomas Brennan, of Dublin, John Fer- 
guson, of Glasgow, and other Irishmen known for 
their adherence to Ireland's cause, and I drew up 
the resolutions. The meeting was held and was 
a great success, there being between ten thousand 
and twelve thousand men present. In the pro- 
cession there were fifteen hundred men on horse- 
back, marching as a troop of cavalry; and this 
feature, inaugurated at Irishtovvn, has been con- 
tinued ever since at every meeting of the Land 
League. The meeting was not fully reported in 
the Dublin papers, but was, as far as the object 
went, a success ; for the landlords of the neigh- 
borhood reduced the rents 25 per cent." 

From this meeting at Irishtown grew the great 
Land League movement. However, Davitt had 
yet to gain the adhesion of the Parliamentary 
leader. The fierce obstructive fio^hts in the House 
of Commons happened by a fortunate coincidence 
to be going on exactly at the same time as the 
threatened famine and the increasinsf evictions 
prepared the mind of Ireland for a new land 
movement. These strueeles had roused the 
spirit and the hopes of the people, and they were 
above and beyond all pointing to the possibility 
of their finding a leader who had the necessary 
courage, determination, and skill to lead a new 



I 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. Ifiy 

land movement to victory. Mr. Davitt early 
appreciated the fact that if he were to make a 
successful land movement he should secure the 
leadership of Mr. Parnell for it, as he alone among 
the Parliamentarians of that day had the necessary 
magnetism and other qualities for such an arduous 
and perilous enterprise. But he did not find in 
Mr. Parnell immediate assent to his proposals ; 
for Davitt's schemes, not merely in their means 
but in their ends, went far beyond any plans that 
had yet been formulated by any Irish organization 
or any Irish politician. The Land reformers in 
Ireland had always demanded as the goal and 
limit of its efforts what came to be known as the 
" Three F's ; " that is to say. Fixity of tenure, Free 
sale, and Fair rent. The demands for these con- 
cessions had been urged for more than forty 
years, and had formed the subject of innumerable 
bills in the House of Commons, of countless mis- 
sions, and of many successive agitations ; and in 
1879, when Davitt was preparing the new move- 
ment, the three " F's " seemed nevertheless to be 
as far off realization as ever. Davitt's startling 
proposal was that in place of urging this moderate 
demand, which appeared unattainable, they should 
advance to a far more drastic proposal for the 
settlement of the land question. This suggestion, 
curiously enough, had first been made by English 
statesmen. John Stuart Mill, the great English 
economist, Mr. Bright, the great English tribune, 



1 gg GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

had both suggested that the real and final remedy 
for the land struggle of Ireland was the establish- 
ment, through the state, of that system of peasant 
proprietors which had brought wealth and inde- 
pendence out of poverty and servitude in France, 
Germany, and Austria. Davitt now proposed 
to drop the proposal for the three F's, and to stop 
nothing short of the declaration that the occupy- 
ing tenantry of Ireland should be transformed into 
proprietors of the soil. Mr. Parnell, although he 
is bold and audacious in enterprise, is a cool and 
cautious calculator of means towards ends. Up 
to this time he had never dreamt of makino- a 
step beyond the demand for the three F's ; and 
he long hesitated before he could accept the pro- 
posal of Davitt ; but at last he embraced Davitt's 
programme ; he went to a meeting at Westport, 
and preached the doctrine of peasant proprietor, 
and so the most popular figure of Ireland had 
crossed the Rubicon : the land movement now 
must go on to great victory or disastrous shame. 
The meeting at Westport was reported in the 
Freemmts yournal oi June 8, 1879. The people 
who were present at the time little knew the im- 
portance of what they were doing, and the report 
accordingly has many bits of unconscious humor 
and unconscious interest. A few extracts from it 
will give the reader a glimpse into what the 
mighty Land League movement was at its start. 
The report begins thus : 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. IQQ 

" The agitation for the reduction of rents as the 
only practical solution for the new agricultural 
distress produced a large meeting to-day at West- 
port, which was addressed by Mr. Parnell, M. P., 
Mr. Louden, B. L., Mr. Malachy O'SullIvan, of 
Ballinasloe,and other well-known Tenant Righters. 
Two circumstances operated adversely to the com- 
plete success of the meeting. It poured rain all 
day yesterday, and heavy showers fell up to lo 
o'clock this morning, which, of course, deterred 
many people in the country districts from attend- 
ing ; but a more serious drawback was the letter 
of His Grace, the Archbishop, published in yester- 
day's Freeman, which came upon the committee 
as a complete surprise. His Grace, who is in 
Westport, preached at early mass, but made no 
allusion whatever to the meeting, nor was it re- 
ferred to at any of the masses. It was after 3 
o'clock when the proceedings commenced. A 
platform was erected in a field near the town, and 
from this an assemblage of over, four thousand 
people, made up of large bodies of men from 
Ballinrobe, Castlerea, Teenane and Achille direc- 
tions, eighty of whom were on horseback, were 
addressed by the speakers. Green banners, bear- 
ing such mottoes as ' The Land for the People,' 
' Down with Land Robbers,' and ' Ireland for the 
Irish,' were scattered here and there above the 
people's heads, and the wearing of green ribbons 
and rosettes was very general. The Ballinrobe 



170 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

band contributed the music. Before the meeting 
began the rain commenced, and continued piti- 
lessly ; but, nothing daunted, the people stood 
their ground, and cheered lustily for the principal 
gentlemen present and for the Zulus." 

The chairman thus alludes to Mr. Parnell : 
"They had amongst them the great Grattan of the 
age, Mr. Parnell (cheers), who had travelled all 
night in order to be present at the meeting, and 
who intended to travel all that nio^ht in order to 
be present at the House of Commons." (Cheers.) 

Here is how Mr. Davitt is spoken of, and this 
is his speech : " Mr. Michael Davitt, one of the 
released political prisoners, proposed the first 
resolution. He said it had been his lot in a 
chequered career to have had the pleasure of 
addressing Irishmen everywhere, but never did 
he feel such pleasure as on the present occasion, 
when he addressed his countrymen (cheers), and 
was asked to propose to them, that ' Whereas 
all political power comes from the people, and 
that the people of Ireland have never ceased 
to proclaim their right to autonomy, we hereby 
reassert the right of our country to self-govern- 
ment.' (Hear ! hear !) They were asked to de- 
fine what they meant by self-government for Ire- 
land, A voice — * We will have total separation.' 
Mr. Davitt continued to say that he was so iden- 
tified with the principle of nationality that it was 
not necessary for him to define to them what was 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 171 

meant by self-government. (Cheers.) He would 
venture to say that there was no Mayo man there 
who would tell him as a man who had been im- 
prisoned that he had done anything for which he 
should apologize before that meeting. (Cries of 
* No.') He would not, in the presence of the gentle- 
men upon that platform, commit them nor the meet- 
ing by giving his definition of the resolution, and 
would content himself by leaving those present to 
draw their inferences from it. They were there 
to proclaim what was proclaimed in a different 
way a hundred years ago. (Cheers.) A race 
of savages on the continent of Africa (cheers 
for the Zulus) were now showing their right to 
that principle, which was as strong in the Irish 
heart to-day as it was years ago. (Applause.) 
Various opinions existed as to whether they 
should demand their full right of Irish independ- 
ence or ought to accept some different or medium 
measure. He (Mr. Davitt) as an Irish Nation- 
alist could not retreat one inch from the position 
he took up when he represented his right to in- 
dependence. (Hear! hear!) He called upon the 
Irish farmers to unite. He had no confidence in 
the English members who pretended to have 
sympathy with Ireland. They had expressed that 
sympathy by oppression, and now, because they 
could not wipe them off the face of the earth, they 
were compelled to show a little attention to Irish 
questions. Why did they do this? Because Mr, 



1 72 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

Parnell had succeeded in blocking the machinery 
of the EngHsh House of Commons. A voice. — 
* Bad luck to it.' Mr. Davitt. — They were there 
to denounce the landlord system, which was like 
a millstone around the neck of Ireland. They 
should leave this meeting condemning not an in- 
dividual case but the system itself. It was im- 
posed upon them by the English government and 
the landlords were only filling a territorial gar- 
rison. When the day came for the settlement of 
this question the government's duty would be to 
compensate the Irish landlord. (Hear! hear!) 
The people should depend upon themselves for 
the settlement of the Irish Land question, and not 
upon the Irish Parliamentary party. As regarded 
that party he believed they could count upon 
their fingers the honest men. If they resolved 
that they should organize and combine to defend 
each other in their interests then they would find 
the Land question setded within a shorter time 
than was used in useless legislation. Do not 
allow anybody, no matter (he now spoke of the 
clergy with respect) what the cut or color of his 
cloth may be, to use the present agitation, or to 
use them in order that their personal grievances 
may be remedied. At present the question of the 
day was the Land question. (Cheers.) He had 
great pleasure in proposing the resolution." 

And, finally, the speech of Mr. Parnell, who was 
loudly cheered, was as follows : *' In proposing the 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 175 

second reading he said he wished to refer to the 
letter of His Grace, the Archbishop of Tuam, 
which had appeared in the Freetnans yournal. 
He need not tell them that it would ill become 
him, or anybody else, to treat anything proceed- 
ing from a man who had stood, as His Grace had, 
between the Irish people and the exterminator, 
with anything but the highest respect. The 
meeting had been placarded throughout the 
County Mayo for some six or seven weeks, an- 
nouncing that he, the speaker, and other public 
men, would address it. During all these weeks 
not a single person in .Mayo or out of it, no cler- 
gyman ever intimated to him that the Archbishop 
was opposed to this meeting. A voice. — ' It was 
never him who wrote the letter.' Mr, Parnell. — 
It was only when leaving my home yesterday to 
come here that I for the first time became ac- 
quainted, by reading that letter, that His Grace 
was opposed to the meeting. I am sure 'John 
of Tuam ' would not wish me to dishonor myself 
by breaking my word to this meeting and by 
remaining away from it. (Applause.) 

"The resolution I have to propose is this-. 
* That, whereas, many landlords by successfully 
asserting in the courts of law their power to arbi- 
trarily increase their rents, irrespective of the 
value of the holdings on their estates, have ren- 
dered worthless the Land Act of 1870 as a means 
of protection to the Irish tenants, we hereby de- 



176 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

clare that not only political expediency, but 
justice and the vital interests of Ireland, demand 
such a readjustment of the land tenure — a read- 
justment based upon the principle that the 
occupier of the land shall be the owner thereof — 
as will prevent further confiscation of the tenants' 
property by unscrupulous landlords, and will 
secure to the people of Ireland their natural right 
to the soil of their country.' 

" I am one of those who believe the landlord 
institution is not a natural institution in any coun- 
try. I believe that the maintenance of the class 
of landlords in a country is not for the greatest 
benefit of the greatest number. Ireland has per- 
haps suffered more than any other country in the 
world from the maintenance of such a class. 
England has, perhaps, assimilated itself better 
than any other country to the landlord system ; 
but in almost every other country in the world 
where the system has been tried it has been given 
up. In Belgium, in Prussia, in France, and in 
Russia, the land has been given to the people — 
to the occupiers of the land. In some cases the 
landlords have been deprived of their property in 
the soil by the iron hand of revolution ; in other 
cases, as in Prussia, the landlords have been pur- 
chased out. If such an arrangement could be 
made without injuring the landlord, so as to 
enable the tenant to have his land as his own and 
to cultivate it as it ought to be cultivated, it would. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 177 

be for the benefit and the prosperity of the coun- 
try. I look to this as the final settlement of this 
question ; but in the meanwhile it is necessary to 
insure that as long as the tenant pays a fair rent 
he shall be left to enjoy the fruits of his industry. 
A fair rent is a rent the tenant can reasonably 
pay according to the times ; but in bad times a 
tenant cannot be expected to pay as much as he 
did in good times, three or four years ago. (Ap- 
plause.) If such rents are insisted upon, a repe- 
tition of the scenes of 1847 '^''"^ 1848 will be 
witnessed. Now what must we do in order to 
induce the landlords to see the position ? You 
must show the landlords that you intend to hold 
a firm grip of your homesteads and land. (Ap-' 
plause.) You must not allow yourselves to be 
dispossessed as you were dispossessed in 1847. 
You must not allow your small holdings to be 
turned into large ones. I am supposing that the 
landlords will remain deaf to the voice of reason, 
but I hope they may not, and that on those prop- 
erties on which the rents are out of all propordon 
to the times that a reduction may be made, and 
that immediately. If not, you must help your- 
selves, and the public opinion of the world will 
stand by you and support you in your struggle to 
defend your homesteads. (Applause.) I should 
be deceiving you if I told you there was any use 
in relying upon the exertions of the Irish members 
of Parliament on your behalf. I think that if your 



n 



1 78 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

members were determined and resolute they 
could help you, but I am afraid they won't. I 
liope that I may be wrong, and that you may rely 
upon the constitutional action of your Parliamen- 
tary representatives in this, the sore time of your 
need and trial ; but, above all things, remember 
that God helps him who helps himself, and that 
by showing such a public spirit as you have shown 
here to-day, by coming in your thousands in the 
face of every difficulty, you will do more to show 
landlords the necessity of dealing justly with you 
than if you had 1 50 members in the House of 
Commons. (Applause.) Perhaps I may be per- 
mitted for a moment to refer to the great question 
of self-government for Ireland. You will say, 
perhaps, that many men have said that this strug- 
gflinof for concessions in the House of Commons 
is a demoralizing thing. Now, I am as confident 
as I am of my own existence that if you had men 
of determination, of some sort of courage and 
energy, representing you, that you could obtain 
concessions. (Hear ! hear !) We are not likely 
to get them of such importance and amount as to 
run the risk of being demoralized by them; and 
also there is really no reason why we should permit 
ourselves to be demoralized by the greatest con- 
cession of all. If you obtain concessions on right 
principles, such as the Irish Church Act and the 
Land Act, you run no risk of demoralizing your- 
selves. I have always noticed that the breaking 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 179 

down of barriers between different classes has in- 
creased their self-respect and increased the spirit 
of nationality among our people. I am convinced 
that nothing would more effectually promote the 
cause of self-g-overnment for Ireland than the 
breaking down of those barriers between the dif- 
ferent classes. Nothing would be more effectual 
for that than the obtaining of a good Land Bill — 
the planting of the people in the soil. If we had 
the farmers of Ireland the owners of the soil to- 
morrow we would not be lono- without gfettinof an 
Irish Parliament. (Applause.) I don't intend to 
be demoralized myself by my concessions. While 
we are getting a concession we may show the 
government a little consideration for the time 
being, and give them a quid pro quo; but after 
that the bargain ceases, and when we have re- 
turned them a fittinof return for what we have orot 
we are quits again, and are free to use such meas- 
ures as may be necessary according to the times 
and according to the circumstances. You have a 
great country to struggle for — a great country 
before you. It is worth a little exertion on your 
part ; it is worth a little time. Do your best and 
your country will thank you for it, and your chil- 
dren hereafter," (Applause.) 

It is recorded of General Grant that he did 
not himself appreciate the magic potence of 
the phrases in his despatches which immediately 
after their publication passed like wildfire through 



130 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

the country. In the same way Parnell perhaps 
did not contemplate the vast circulation which 
was immediately given to one of the phrases in 
this historic speech. " Hold " — or as it was after- 
wards said — "keep a firm grip of your home- 
steads and land," became the war-cry of the new 
land movement. Hitherto, when the landlords 
had sent their process of eviction, the tenant had 
ofone out with wife and children, thouofh the wife 
and children might be dying and the ditch be their 
only refuge. Here was a new and a strange and 
a thrilling gospel ; that the farmer should stand 
by his holding and his house, and refuse to perish 
at the bidding of his oppressor. The failure of 
the potato crop, the increase of eviction, the threat 
of famine — all these three things contributed to 
give to the words of Parnell a fateful and universal 
application. The new order was coming ; the 
tenant was no longer to be the patient slave, but 
was resolved to fight doggedly for his rights. 

Thus it was that the great Land League move- 
ment took its start. It was a movement that 
grew rather than was made. The circumstances 
of the time made it necessary. All that was 
wanted was now supplied. There was a leader 
of the necessary boldness and adroitness to direct 
and to guide it ; and soon from one end of Ireland 
to another there were bodies of farmers ready 
to take up the new gospel and go in for the 
struggle. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. Igl 

Matthew Harris is one of the most interestingf 
and strikinof fioruresof the Irish movements of the 
last thirty years. During all this period he has 
devoted himself with self-sacrificing and unremit- 
ting zeal to the attainment of complete redress 
of his country's grievances. In this respect poli- 
tics are with him an absorbing passion, almost a 
religion. In the pursuit of this high and noble 
end he has risked death, lost liberty, ruined his 
business prospects. Eager, enthusiastic, vehe- 
ment, he has at the same time that grim tenacity 
of purpose by which forlorn hopes are changed 
into triumphant fruitions. He has fought the 
battle against landlordism in the dark as well as 
in the brio^htest hour with unshaken resolution. 
Reared in the country, from an early age he saw 
landlordism in its worst shape and aspect ; his 
childish recollections are of cruel and heartless 
evictions. Thus it is that in every movement for 
the liberation of the farmer or of Ireland durinof 
the last thirty years he has been' a conspicuous 
figure, as hopeful, energetic, laborious in the hour 
of despair, apathy, and lassitude, as in times of 
universal vigor, exultation, and activity. 

Matthew Harris made war on landlordism, 
which in the county of Galway had been particu- 
larly atrocious for many years before the Land 
League was thought of; and in this way his ac- 
tions became the germ of a new movement. 

And now we have come to a point in our nar- 



Ig2 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

rative that makes it necessary to give a short his- 
torical retrospect. How comes it that the Land 
question in Ireland has grown to be a question 
of life and death to the Irish people ? Is the land 
system in Ireland the same as in America or in 
other countries ? And how is it that there has 
grown up between the landlord and the occupier 
of the Irish soil a feud so bitter, a hatred so deadly? 
These questions compel a short sketch of the land 
struggle. 

A short sketch, indeed ; and yet any sketch, 
however long, would, in point of fact, be all too 
brief to convey any adequate idea of the wretched 
history of Ireland's wrongs. For the struggle in 
Ireland, from the very outset, has been a land 
struggle. Every combination against the Saxon 
invader has been a land league ; almost every 
new creation in the Irish peerage has been simply 
the transfer of some land grabber into the galaxy 
of the Anglo-Hibernian aristocracy. It is a mis- 
erable story, sickening in its details ; but there is 
no alternative. Any view of the situation which 
leaves out of the account this long; catalogfue of 
the crimes of the rich man against the poor man 
in Ireland must altogether fail of its purpose. 

The sketch is brief, not for lack of material to 
make it long; but our purpose in this book is 
not to repeat in detail the old story of shame and 
crime and misery. Our narrative is not designed 
as a chronicle of Ireland's wrong-s so much as a 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 183 

new gospel of hope, and a prophecy of future 
peace and prosperity for that unhappy country. 
The situation at present is, indeed, full of hope 
and promise ; but the full end is not yet attained. 
The goal seems near at hand ; but the need for 
united action, wise counsels, persistence and pa- 
tience, was never oreater than now. England 
has been forced to hear Ireland's complaints ; her 
best statesmen have been found not unwilling to 
concede the essential part of what Ireland claims ; 
and even the majority of those who oppose most 
strongly the plans of settlement which have been 
offered profess to object to the details of those 
plans rather than to the essential principles in- 
volved. There is, then, every reason for the 
friends of Ireland to be of good cheer. 
11 



CHAPTER III. 

THE LAND WAR, 

THE history of Ireland for centuries — the his- 
tory of Ireland to-day — is largely the strug- 
gle for the possession of the land. Behind the 
Land question stands the larger and higher ques- 
tion of National rights ; but the land struggle has 
always been present to add fierceness to the de- 
sire for National liberty. 

The possession of the land forms in most coun- 
tries the ground and bottom subject of struggle ; 
but the fierceness of the fight is naturally pro- 
portioned to the prominence which agriculture 
holds in the economy of a state. In countries 
with huge manufacturing industries the struggle 
for the land has not the same intensity as in coun- 
tries where farming is the main if not the sole re- 
source of the people. Again, the keenness of 
land struggles is proportionate to the other dif- 
ferences in the combatants by which it may be 
accompanied. There are states where the strug- 
gle between the owner and the occupier of the 
soil is a struggle between men of the same race 
and the same creed ; and naturally struggles in 
(184) 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. ]g7 

such countries have not the terrible and passion- 
ate hatred of struggles in countries where the di- 
vergence of interest is accompanied by difference 
of faith and blood. And finally, the battle for the 
land is fiercest of all in a country where the power 
on the side of the owner is that of another and a 
foreign nation. In Ireland all the conditions that 
make the land-owner fierce and relentless coexist. 
The ownership of the soil was transferred from 
the Catholic and the Celt to a Protestant and a 
Saxon ; the occupier of the soil was robbed of his 
heritage in a land where the cultivation of the soil 
was the one and only means of making a liveli- 
hood, and all this was done through tlie agency 
of Engrland and in the interests of Enorlishmen 
and English policy. 

The struggle between the native race of Ireland 
and the intrusive English landlord-class for the 
possession of the soil of that oppressed country 
may be said to date from 1 1 69, when Richard 
Fitzstephen landed near Wexford with the advance 
party of Strongbow's famous bands. The first 
invaders were Norman and Welsh rather than 
English ; and the first enemies they met were 
Danes rather than Irish. Still from this time dates 
the attempt (long continued, but for centuries 
unsuccessful) to substitute feudal laws and the 
feudal land tenure for the semi-communal land 
system which was that of the native Irish popu- 
lation. From this seed sprang the baleful upas- 



Igg GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

tree of English oppression, which was destined to 
overshadow the whole country for ages. There 
is little doubt that the first cause of the difficulty 
between the English and natives was largely a 
misapprehension The Anglo-Normans were 
ignorant of the Irish land tenures, and of their 
system of septs and tribes ; and they seem never 
to have suspected that there was any people in 
the world which did not hold their land by a tenure 
like their own. Dermod MacMorroucjh is said 
to have given Strongbow his only child Eva in 
marriage, and with her to have granted certain 
lands in perpetuity. Now it is most certain, first, 
that the lands which Dermod is said to have 
granted were never his ; and next that if they had 
been his, he would have had no right, by Irish law, 
to convey them out of his sept. The Norman 
feudal laws, however, would have made Eva sole 
heiress of her father's power (a thing unknown in 
old Irish law), as well as the inheritress of all the 
lands in his kingdom. Quite in the same line 
of stupidity and ignorance has been the much 
more recent experience of the British in India, 
where, for more than a century, they kept confis- 
cating and granting lands to which they had no 
right. Until very recent years they seem to have 
had no conception or suspicion of the fact that 
they were violating all the immemorial land laws 
and traditional rights of an ancient and intelli- 
gent people, and making deep wounds which 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. IgQ 

the East Indian races will never forget nor forgive. 
As early as 121 7 marks of strong mutual hatred 
between the Irish and Anglo-Irish begin to appear. 
All through the later feudal reigns there were fre- 
quent deeds of blood. The English looked upon 
the Irish as no better than wild beasts ; and the 
Irish returned their scorn with the bitterest hatred. 
The "great Talbot," immortalized by Shakes- 
peare, was in truth an able soldier, though feeble 
in council; yet towards the Irish people he acted 
with extreme barbarity. An old Irish chronicle 
says that he was " a son of curses for his venom, 
and a devil for his evil deeds ; and the learned 
say of him that there came not from the time of 
Herod [Pilate], by whom Christ was crucified, any 
one so wicked in evil deeds." 

It is not necessary to go back to the first in- 
vasion of Ireland by the English or even to some 
centuries later in order to find the origin of the 
present land system. For several centuries after 
the Eno-lish had invaded Ireland the English 
kings had but a small extent of territory ; and 
their authority was shadowy and shifting. More- 
over the English invaders in time mingled with 
the Celtic inhabitants ; adopted their customs, their 
dress, and their sentiments ; took their wives from 
among them ; and in time were so thoroughly 
transformed that they were described in the well- 
known phrase, Hiberniores Hibernis ipsis. But 
the English authorities looked on these proceed- 



190 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

ings with evil eye ; passed laws inflicting heavy 
fines upon the English settlers who thus inter- 
mingled with the Irish race. Indeed they went 
even further ; for one of the laws passed in the 
reign of Henry VI. made it felony on the part of 
an Engrlish merchant to sell his croods to an Irish- 
man. The relations between the English settled 
in the counties around Dublin — the regfion was 
known as The Pale — and the Irish throughout the 
rest of Ireland, throughout all those centuries, 
were those of perpetual and incessant war. The 
Irish were regarded as enemies whom it was 
lawful to rob and to slay and desirable to exter- 
minate. Then, as for many centuries afterwards, 
it was the policy of English statesmen and soldiers 
to exterminate the Irish race from the face of Ire- 
land and substitute therefor a purely English 
population. The Irish were foreigners in every 
sense of the word. The whole policy of this 
period is put with excellent terseness and lucidity 
by Sir John Davies. Sir John Davies was At- 
torney-General of the English authorities in the 
reign of James I., and he has left most interesting 
and valuable accounts of his times. 

** In all the Parliament Rolls," he writes, " which 
are extant, from the fortieth year of Edward III., 
when the statutes of Kilkenny were enacted, till 
the reign of King Henry VIII., we find the de- 
generate and disobedient English called rebels ; 
but the Irish which were not in the King's peace 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 191 

are called enemies. Statute Kilkenny, c. i, lo 
and II ; 2 Henry IV., c. 24; 10 Henry VI., c. i, 
18 ; 18 Henry VI., c. 4, 5 ; Edward IV., c. 6 ; 10 
Henry VII., c. 17. All these statutes speak of 
English rebels and Irish enemies ; as if the Irish 
had never been in the condition of subjects, but 
always out of the protection of the law, and were 
indeed in worse case than aliens of any foreign 
realm that was in amity with the crown of Eng- 
land. For by divers heavy penal laws the English 
were forbidden to marry, to foster, to make gos- 
sips with the Irish, or to have any trade or com- 
merce in their markets or fairs ; nay, there was a 
law made no longer since than the twenty-eighth 
year of Henry VIII., that the English should not 
marry with any person of Irish blood, though he 
had gotten a charter of denization ; unless he 
had done both homage and fealty to the King in 
the Chancery, and were also bound by recogni- 
zance with sureties, to continue a loyal subject. 
Whereby it is manifest, that such as had the gov- 
ernment of Ireland under the crown of England 
did intend to make a perpetual separation and 
enmity between the English and the Irish, pre- 
tending, no doubt, that the English should in the 
end root out the Irish ; which the E^iglish not be- 
ing able to do, caused a perpetual war between the 
nations, which continued for four hundred and 
odd years, and would have lasted to the world's 
end, if in the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign tiie 



192 GLADSTONE— PARNELL, 

Irish had not been broken and conquered by the 
sword, and since the beginning of his majesty's 
reign been protected and governed by the 
law." 

It will be remarked that in the extract just given 
Sir John Davies illustrates his statements with 
true lawyer-like accuracy by references to the 
leading cases which corroborate them. In the 
same series of historical tracts — as they are called 
— in which he lays the foregoing propositions 
down, he illustrates the ideas of the times still 
more clearly by quoting some well-known trials 
in which there was an Englishman of The Pale 
on one side and an Irishman on the other. In the 
one case the Irishman sues the Enelishman for 
trespass ; and the plea of the Englishman is not 
a denial of the offence but that the Irishman is not 
an Englishman nor a member of five families 
whom the English King Henry II. exempted from 
the laws against the Irish ; and the plea being es- 
tablished the Irishman is non-suited. In the sec- 
ond case an Englishman is charged with the mur- 
der of an Irishman ; and his plea is a confession 
of guilt as to the murder accompanied by the de- 
mand that, as the murdered man was an Irishman, 
the punishment should not be death but the pay- 
ment of a fine. On the other hand the Irishman 
that killed an Englishman was always hanged. 
Indeed there are several statutes that openly 
preached the assassination of Irishmen found 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. I93 

within English territory as a duty and a service to 
the state. 

Thus in the reign of Edward IV. a statute was 
passed, intituled — " An Act that it shall be law- 
full to kill any that is found robbing by day or 
night, or going or coming to rob or steal, having 
no faithfull man of good name or fame in their 
company in English apparrel : " Whereby it was 
enacted — " That it shall be lawfull to all manner 
of men that find any theeves robbing by day or 
by night, or going or coming to rob or steal, in or 
out, going, or coming, having no faithfull man of 
good name in their company in English apparrel 
upon any of the liege people of the King, that it 
shall be lawfull to take and kill those, and to cut 
off their heads, without any impeachment of our 
Sovereign Lord and King, his heirs, officers, or 
ministers, or of any others." 

"Thus, in truth," justly comments Daniel 
O'Connell, " the only fact necessary to be ascer- 
tained, to entitle an Englishman to cut off the 
head of another man, was, that such other should 
be an Irishman. For if the Irishman was not rob- 
bing, or coming from robbing, who could say but 
that he might be going to rob ; ' in, or out,' as 
the statute has it. And the Englishman — the 
cutter-off of the head — was made sole judge of 
where the Irishman was going, and of what he in- 
tended to do. The followers of Mahomet, with 
regard to their treatment of their Grecian sub- 



194 GLADSTONE— FARNELL. 

jects, were angels of mercy when compared with 
the EnorHsh in Ireland. Care was also taken that 
no part of the effect of the law should be lost by 
the mistaken humanity of any individual English- 
man ; for an additional stimulant was given by the 
following section of the Act : 

" 'And that it shall be lawful by authority of the 
said Parliament to the said bringer of the said 
head, and his ayders to the same, for to destrain 
and levy by their own hands, of every man having 
one plow-land in the barony where the said thief 
was so taken, two-pence, and of every man hav- 
ing half a plow-land in the said barony, one- 
penny, and every other man having one house 
and goods to the value of fourty shillings, one- 
penny, and of every other cottier having house 
and smoak, one half-penny.' " 

There was one other provision of the English 
dealings with the Irish people which was as de- 
structive to prosperity as those cited were to 
the safety of Irish life. It has been the constant 
refrain of those who have demanded land reform 
for many generations that the Irish tenant gained 
nothing from industry ; that a premium was placed 
upon laziness, for, as the tenant made the land 
more fertile, the landlord came and pocketed the 
increase by raising the rent. At an early stage 
in Irish history the Irish tenant had to live under 
this destructive condition. Again let us go to the 
writings of an English official for our description 
of this grievance. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 195 

"The most wicked and mischievous custom of 
all was that of Coin and Livery, which consisted 
in taking of man's meat, horse meat, and money, 
of all the inhabitants of the country, at the will 
and pleasure of the soldier ; who, as the phrase 
of the Scripture is, did eat up the people as it 
were bread ; for that he had no other entertain- 
ment. This extortion was originally Irish ; lor 
they used to lay bonaght'"^ upon their people, and 
never gave their soldiers any other pay. But 
when the English had learned it they used it with 
more insolence, and made it more intolerable ; for 
this oppression was not temporary, nor limited 
either to place or time ; but because there was 
everywliere a continual war, either offensive or 
defensive, and every lord of a county, and every 
marcher, made war and peace at his pleasure, it 
became universal and perpetual ; and indeed was 
the most heavy oppression that ever was used in 
any Christian or heathen kingdom. — And there- 
fore, vox oppressorum, this crying sin did draw 
down as great, or greater plagues upon Ireland, 
than the oppression of the Israelites did draw 
upon the land of Egypt. For the plagues of 
Egypt, though they were grievous, were but of 
short continuance ; but the plagues of Ireland 
lasted four hundred years together." 

The natural consequences followed ; they may 

* " Bonaght " was the Irish term for billeting of soldiers, with a vi^l.t 
to be maintained in food. 



196 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

as well and cannot be better described than in 
the words of Davies : 

" This extortion of Coin and Livery produced 
two notorious effects : first, it made the land 
waste ; next, it made the people idle ; for when 
the husbandman had labored all the year, the 
soldier in one night consumed the fruits of all his 
labor, longique peril labor irritus a7ini. — Had he 
reason then to manure the land for the next year? 
Or rather, might he not complain as the shepherd 
in Virgil : 

" ' Impius hasc tam culta novalia miles habebit? 
Barbarus has segetes ? En quo discordia cives 
Perduxit miseros ? En queis consevimus agros ? ' 

"And hereupon of necessity came depopulation, 
banishment, and extirpation of the better sort of 
subjects ; and such as remained became idle and 
lookers-on, expecting the event of those miseries 
and evil times, so as their extreme extortion and 
oppression hath been the true cause of the idle- 
ness of this Irish nation, and that rather the 
vulgar sort have chosen to be beggars in foreign 
countries than to manure their fruitful land at 
home." 

It will probably occur to the reader that the 
horrible oppression thus inflicted on the Irish 
must have been largely the result of their own 
folly or ferocity. It will be answered that it was 
a case of constant and incessant war between two 
forces equally barbarous, relentless, and irrecon- 




EVICTED-HOMELESS. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 199 

cilable, and that if the Irish were savagely treated 
and regarded as foes to be exterminated by the 
EngHsh of The Pale, it was because the English 
of The Pale were as savagely treated by the Irish 
and equally regarded as wild beasts to be extir- 
pated. But against this theory we call in again 
the evidence of the English monarch's Attorney- 
General : 

" But perhaps," writes Sir John Davies, antici- 
pating this objection, "the Irish in former times did 
wilfully refuse to be subject to the laws of Eng- 
land, and would not be partakers of the benefit 
thereof, thoug-h the Crown of Enp-land did desire 
it ; and therefore they were reputed aliens, out- 
laws, and enemies. Assuredly the contrary doth 
appear." 

And in page loi he expressly declares, — 

" That for the space of two hundred years at 
least, after the first arrival of Henry II. in Ireland, 
the Irish would have gladly embraced the laws of 
England, and did earnestly desire the benefit and 
protection thereof; which, being denied them, did 
of necessity cause a continual bordering war be- 
tween the English and Irish." 

And finally he admirably sums up the whole 
case when he writes : 

" This, then, I note as a great defect in the civil 
policy of this kingdom ; in that for the space of 
three hundred and fifty years at least after the 
conquest first attempted, the English laws were 



200 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

not communicated to the Irish, nor the benefit 
and protection thereof allowed unto them, though 
they earnestly desired and sought the same : for 
as long as they were out of the protection of the 
law, so as every Englishman might oppress, spoil 
and kill them without control, how was it possible 
they should be other than outlaws and enemies 
to the Crown of England? If the king would 
not admit them to the condition of subjects, how 
could they learn to acknowledge and obey him as 
their sovereign ? When they might not con- 
verse or commerce with any civil man, nor enter 
into any town or city without peril of their lives, 
whither should they fly but into the woods and 
mountains, and there live in a wild and barbarous 
manner? " 

Before leaving this part of the subject there is 
one other point that deserves to be noticed. The 
continuance of the destructive estrangement al- 
ready described between the English authorities 
and the Irish population was not merely against 
the wishes of the Irish but possibly also against 
the wishes of English kings and of prudent Eng- 
lish ministers. It was the great Lords who really 
stood between the two peoples. Thus the reason 
why that wise monarch. King Edward III., did not 
extend the benefit of English protection and Eng- 
lish law to the Irish people was, that the great 
Lords of Ireland, the Wicklows, the Stanleys, and 
the Rodens of the day, certified to the king, — 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 201 

"That the Irish might not be naturalized, with- 
out being of damage or prejudice to them, the said 
Lords, or to the Crown." 

This point is put still more clearly in the history 
of Ireland written by a Protestant clergyman, 
named Leland : 

" The true cause which for a long time fatally 
opposed the gradual coalition of the Irish and 
English race, under one form of government, was, 
that the great English settlers found it more for 
their immediate interest, that a free course should 
be left to their oppressions ; that many of those 
whose lands they coveted should be considered 
as aliens; that they should be furnished for their 
petty wars by arbitrary exactions ; and in their 
rapines and massacres be freed from the terrors 
of a rigidly impartial and severe tribunal." 

These extracts sufficiently indicate the rela- 
tions that existed between the English conquerors 
and the Irish inhabitants. It was not unnatural 
under such circumstances that the territories of 
the English kings did not increase ; at one time 
they had fallen as low as four counties out of the 
entire country. The wars of the Roses too so 
much occupied the attention of the English at 
home that the Irish were able to drive the English 
out of town after town, and finally out of county 
after county until the reign of Henry VIII. 

The reign of Henry VIII. was marked by 
several rebellions against the English authority. 



202 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

In the course of these rebelHons many severe 
battles were fought ; Irish chiefs were conquerors 
and conquered ; if they conquered they were ac- 
cepted, if they were conquered they were brought 
to London and after a short period in the Tower 
were hanged as traitors at Tyburn. In this way 
the seeds were sown of severe and bitter trouble 
in the reign of Elizabeth. By this time too the 
design of extending the Protestant religion in 
Ireland and crushing the Catholic had taken shape; 
and wars ensued which were embittered by re- 
ligious passion and by the still more destructive 
factor of greed for land. It is not our purpose to 
detail the history of these wars. They have im- 
portance for the present purpose only in so far 
as they bear upon the land struggle and explain 
the state of the land question as it exists to-day. 

Suffice it then to say that all the great families 
of Ireland, and in particular the great Anglo-Irish 
families, rose in succession against the Queen's 
power. Of all these chiefs the most important 
was Shane O'Neill. Shane O'Neill is one of the 
great men of human history. With his cunning he 
baffled the skilful councillors of Elizabeth ; in bat- 
tle after battle he conquered the largest and bravest 
armies the British Queen could send against him, 
and finally, when he had become master of all 
Ulster, he ruled it with greater order than had ever 
been even approached before his time. In the end, 
after many changes of fortune, his forces were 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 903 

routed ; he himself, Hying before the triumphant 
English army, was assassinated, and his kingdom 
was broken up and scattered. A short time 
previously rebellions under the Geraldines had 
been beaten in the southern parts of the country. 
With the defeat of the O'Neill the conquest of 
Ireland by Elizabeth was complete, and then Eliza- 
beth proceeded to carry out the second part of the 
English policy. This was to transfer the owner- 
ship, and, so far as possible, the occupation of the 
soil from the native Irish to Enorlish lords and 
English husbandmen. Thus began the first great 
era of confiscation and plantation. 

A preliminary to these steps was deemed 
necessary. There was a series of expeditions 
to the different parts of Ireland, which should 
prepare them still better for the new regime. 
These expeditions had purposes as fell and were 
carried out by means as execrable as any re- 
corded in history. The purpose was not simply 
to break the forces or quell the spirit of the native 
population : the object was to actually clear the 
island of Irish settlers by a war of extermination. 
Previously and simultaneously was there made 
another and a disastrous change in the Irish law. 

*' Before the introduction of the feudal English 
system of tenure," writes T. M. Healy, "the 
lands of Ireland belonged to the clans of Ireland. 
The chief, subject to certain privileges appur- 
tenant to his chieftaincy, held only as trustee for 
12 



204 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

the tribe, and if by his misfeasance he became 
personally dispossessed, the rights of his people 
were in no wise affected. When, however, the 
councillors of Elizabeth determined to subjugate 
the entire island, and to substitute British for 
Brehon law throughout its whole extent, prince 
and people alike suffered when defeated. Victory 
for the English resulted in the dispossession and 
spoliation of the clansmen as well as of the chiefs 
who led them to the battle ; English adventurers, 
by the Queen's patent, obtained lordship and 
dominion over the conquered territory ; and clan 
ownership gave place to private property in 
land." 

And now for the military expeditions which 
were to complete the work that had been begun 
by the conquest of O'Neill and the change in the 
land law. These expeditions, like other events 
already recorded, we can describe, fortunately, 
not in the hot language of modern Irish writers, 
but in the frigid and unadorned characters of 
the Englishmen who themselves enacted them 
and immediately after described them. 

Mr. Froude transcribes from his own report the 
following letter written in the year 1576, by 
Malby, the President of Connaught : 

"At Christmas," he wrote, " I marched into their 
territory [Shan Burke's], and finding courteous 
dealing with them had like to have cut my throat, 
I thought good to take another course, and so 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 205 

with determination to consume them with fire and 
sword, sparing neither old nor young, I entered 
their mountains. I burnt all their corn and 
houses, and committed to the sword all that could 
be found, where were slain at that time above 
sixty of their best men, and among them the best 
leaders they had. This was Shan Burke's country. 
Then I burnt Ulick Burke's country. In like 
manner I assaulted a castle where the garrison 
surrendered. I put them to the misericordia of 
my soldiers. They were all slain. Thence I 
went on, sparing none which came in my way, 
which cruelty did so amaze their followers, that 
they could not tell where to bestow themselves. 
Shan Burke made means to me to pardon him, 
and forbear killing of his people. I would not 
hearken, but went on my way. The gentlemen 
of Clanrickard came to me. I found it was but 
dallying to win time, so I left Ulick as little corn 
and as few houses standing as I left his brother, 
and what people was found had as ■ little favor as 
the other had. It was all done in rain, and frost, 
and storm, journeys in such weather bringing 
them the sooner to submission. They are humble 
enough now, and will yield to any terms we like 
to offer them." 

There are descriptions of similar expeditions 
in Munster. They are also drawn by English 
hands. It is a report by Sir George Carew, the 
English General. 



206 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

"The President having received certaine infor- 
mation that the Mounster fugitives were har- 
boured in those parts, having before burned all 
the houses and corne, and taken great preyes in 
Owny Onubrian and Kilquig, a strong and fast 
countrey, not farre from Limerick, diverted his 
forces into East Clanwilliam and Muskeryquirke, 
where Pierce Lacy had lately beene succoured ; 
and harassing the country, killed all mankind 
that were found therein, for a terrour to those as 
should give releefe to runagate traitors. Thence 
wee came into Arleaghe woods where wee did the 
like, not leaving behind us man or beast, corne 
or cattle, except such as had been conveyed into 
castles." — Pacata Hibernia, 659. 

And now the following extracts will show how 
this system was acted upon in Leinster. We 
quote from Leland, the English historian, already 
quoted : 

"The Leinster rebels, by driving the royalists 
into their fortified towns, and living long without 
molestation, had cultivated their lands, and estab- 
lished an unusual regularity and plenty in their 
districts. But now they were exposed to the 
most rueful havoc from the Queen's forces. The 
soldiers, encouraged by the example of their 
officers, everywhere cut down the standing corn 
with their swords, and devised every means to 
deprive the wretched inhabitants of all the neces- 
saries of life. Famine was judged the speediest 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 207 

and most effectual means of reducing them ; and 
therefore the Deputy was secretly not displeased 
with the devastations made even in the well-af- 
fected quarters by the improvident fury of the 
rebels." 

The reader will observe that famine was used 
as beinor an instrument even more effective than 
the sword for producing the extermination of the 
native race. It is a painful proof of the brutali- 
zation which conquest produces, even in gentle 
and lofty natures, that the poet, Spenser, was 
found among those who calmly recommended to 
the Queen famine as an excellent and a most 
efficacious instrument of state policy. 

Having explained how famine could be manu- 
factured, he goes on : 

"The end will (I assure mee) bee very short, 
and much sooner than it can be in so greate a 
trouble, as it seemeth, hoped for : altho' there 
should none of them fall by the sword, nor be 
slaine by the soldiour: yet thus bt^ing kept from 
manurance, and their cattle from running abroad, 
by this hard restraint they luould quietly consume 
themselves, and devoiu^e one another^'' 

And now let us quote from this same author 
and one more, their descriptions of the state of 
things which the English policy of murder and 
famine had produced : 

" Notwithstanding that the same was a most 
rich and plentiful country, full of corne and cattel, 



208 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

yet, ere one yeare and a half, they were brought 
to such wretchedness as that any stony heart 
would rue the same. Out of every corner of the 
woods and glynns, they came creeping forth upon 
their hands, for their legs could not bear them ; 
they looked like anatomies of death ; they spake 
like ghosts crying out of their graves ; they did 
eate the dead carrions, happy where they could 
finde them ; yea, and one another soone after ; 
insomuch as the very carcasses they spared not to 
scrape out of their graves, and, if they found a 
plot of watercresses or shamrocks, there they 
flocked as to a feast for the time; yet, not able to 
continue there withal ; that in shorte space, there 
was none almost left, and a most populous plenti- 
ful county ey suddanlie left voyde of man and beasts 

" No spectacle," writes Morrison, an English 
Protestant historian, " was more frequent in the 
ditches of the towns, and especially in wasted 
countries, than to see multitudes of these poor 
people, the Irish, dead, with their mouths all col- 
ored green by eating nettles, docks, and all things 
they could rend above ground." 

And now that the native race had thus been 
destroyed, there comes the result for which the 
destruction had taken place. Confiscation follows 
extirpation. 

" Proclamation," says Godkin in his " Land 
War," " was made throughout England, inviting 
'younger brothers of good families ' to undertake 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 211 

the plantation of Desmond — each planter to ob- 
tain a certain scope of land, on condition of set- 
tling thereupon so many families — ' none of the 
native Irish to be admitted,' Under these condi- 
tions, Sir Christopher Hatton took up 10,000 
acres in Waterford ; Sir Walter Raleigh, 1 2,000 
acres, partly in Waterford and partly in Cork ; 
Sir William Harbart, or Herbert, 13,000 acres in 
Kerry ; Sir Edward Denny, 6,000 acres in the 
same county ; Sir Warren St. Leger, and Sir 
Thomas Norris, 6,000 acres each in Cork ; Sir 
William Courtney, 10,000 acres in Limerick; Sir 
Edward Fitton, 11,500 acres in Tipperary and 
Waterford; and Edmund Spenser, 3,000 acres in 
Cork, on the beautiful Blackwater. The other 
notable undertakers were the Hides, Butchers, 
Wirths, Berkleys, Trenchards, Thorntons, Bourch- 
ers, Billingsleys, etc. Some of these grants, es- 
pecially Raleigh's, fell in the next reign to Richard 
Boyle, the so-called 'great Earl of Cork ' — proba- 
bly the most pious hypocrite to be found in the 
lonof roll of the ' Munster Undertakers.' " 

And so ended the first great work of trans- 
ferrine the soil of Ireland. The work continued 
throughout the three following reigns. 

The Irish hailed the accession of the son of the 
Catholic Mary of Scotland with great joy and 
hopes for a happier era for their faith and coun- 
try, but they were destined to be cruelly and 
quickly undeceived. One of the earliest acts of 



212 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

the King was a declaration that liberty of con- 
science was not to be granted; but it soon be- 
came evident that the policy of Anglicising Ire- 
land begun in the previous reign was to be 
carried out in the present in a thorough and 
systematic manner. 

The King had fixed his eyes on Ulster as a 
fitting quarter in which to carry out a scheme of 
plantations, and a scheme for getting rid of the 
native chiefs was speedily developed. This was 
found in the discovery of an anonymous letter 
conveniently discovered at the door of the Coun- 
cil Chamber in Dublin Castle, disclosing a con- 
spiracy on the part of the Earls of O'Neill and 
O'Donnell against the authority of the Crown. 
No evidence was then nor has been since discov- 
ered, of this alleged conspiracy, but the earls 
were at once proclaimed traitors and fled the 
kingdom with their families and a few friends and 
retainers. Ulster was now ready to James' hand. 
It was described as a fertile province, well watered, 
plentifully supplied with all the necessaries for 
man's subsistence, and yielded abundant products 
for purposes of commerce. The lands were in- 
deed occupied by the Irish natives, who had on the 
King's accession been assured in their possession 
of their fields on a tenure which would remain un- 
affected by the submission or rebellion of their 
-'"•iefs. But they could be easily dealt with. 
A proclamation was issued confiscating an^ 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 213 

vesting in the Crown six counties in Ulster — 
Tyrone, Derry, Donegal, Armagh, Fermanagh, 
and Cavan, comprising in all three and three- 
quarter millions of acres. The scheme of settle- 
ment was carefully designed to avoid the errors 
of former plantations. Those in previous reigns 
had been acknowledged failures, by reason of the 
enormous size of the grants made to the "under- 
takers." The " undertakers," as Sir Walter Ra- 
leigh and his countrymen were called, found their 
grants too large to settle and farm personally. 
They returned for the most part to England, took 
no trouble to plant English farmers in the land, 
suffered the Irish to remain on the land, and drew 
their rents in peace. 

In Ulster, however, the tracts were to be of 
manageable extent ; the natives were to have lo- 
cations of their own to which they were to be 
removed ; the new settlers, drawn from England 
and Scotland, were to be massed and grouped 
together for mutual protection. The escheated 
lands were to be divided into lots of from i,ooo to 
2,000 acres, at rents of ij^d. to 2'^d. per acre, 
and distributed partly among the new settlers, 
partly among English servitors, and partly among 
the well-affected natives. Every " undertaker " 
bound himself to plant on the soil a certain num- 
ber of fee-farmers, lease-holders, artisans, and 
laborers, down to the lowest grade ; all grantees 
and their tenants were to take the oath of su- 



214 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

premacy, and none were permitted to employ 
natives or Catholics in any capacity whatsoever. 

Of the three and three-quarter millions of acres 
which were confiscated, about one-fifth was valua- 
ble or " fat " land, and this was mainly appor- 
tioned in this manner. Fifty Englishmen and 
fifty-nine Scotchmen (the needy countrymen of 
the King) got among them 162,500 acres. The 
most noticeable names among the English plant- 
ers were Powell, Heron, Ridgway, Willoughbie, 
Parsons, Audley, Davis, Blennerhasset, Wilson, 
Cornwall, Mansfield, and Archdale, and among 
the Scotch Douglas, Abercorn, Boyd, Stewart, 
Cunningham, Rallston, and the prolific breed of 
the Hamiltons, who obtained estates by the 
thousand acres in every one of the six counties, 
and whose descendants are to be found to-day in 
every office of profit and emolument in the 
country. 

Sixty servitors, or persons who had served the 
Crown in a civil or military capacity, swallowed 
up 50,000 acres, and among these were some of 
the prominent organizers of this wholesale plun- 
der and some of the cruel enemies and oppressors 
of the Celtic population. Chief amongst these 
were Sir Toby Caulfield, Sir William Parsons, 
surveyor-general of the lands, ancestor of the 
present Lord Rosse, Sir Robert Wingfield, astute 
legal sycophant, Sir John Davis, Sir Henry Fol- 
liot, tht^ merciless Sir Arthur Chicester, lord 



■'^ 




THE OBNOXIOUS PROCESS-SERVER. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 217 

deputy and superintendent of the plantation, and 
captains and lieutenants of lesser fame, Cooke, 
Atherton, Stewart, Vaughan, Browne, Atkinson, 
etc. Seventy-seven thousand acres fell to the 
share of the Protestant bishops, deans and chap- 
ter, who had already obtained possession of all 
the Catholic churches and abbeys throughout the 
island. Trinity College, Dublin, founded in the 
late reign, obtained 30,000 acres (47,101 acres 
were reserved for corporate towns), and the 286 
so-styled loyal Irish received about 180 acres 
each, of what, it may be safely asserted, was the 
most unprofitable portion of the "lean." 

The Corporation of the City of London, and the 
twelve City Guilds, the Companies of Skinners, 
Fishmongers, Haberdashers and the like, took up 
the whole county of Derry, 209,800 acres in ex- 
tent, and absentee proprietors on a large scale 
have drawn rents from that time to the present 
from lands they have never seen. 

Meantime, the native peasantry were driven 
out of their tribal lands, the rich glens of Antrim, 
the meadow lands of Fermanagh, the fertile 
plains of Armagh, into the waste-lands, mountain, 
moor, bog, marsh of these and the adjoining 
counties. 

Shielded, favored, and aided by the law, the 
success of the plantation made itself apparent 
when in a few years commissioners were sent 
down to report progress. The English and 



iS» 



218 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

Scotch grantees were actually occupying their 
lands with their wives and families. The village 
of Derry had become the town of " London- 
derry," with ramparts twelve feet thick, and bat- 
tlemented gates. Castles, mansions, farm-houses, 
sprang up everywhere ; millwheels turned, or- 
chards bloomed, villages and towns rose all 
around. 

Nevertheless the strict letter of the scheme was 
not and could not be carried out. Sufficient 
laborers of British birth could not be obtained, 
and numbers of the natives had to be employed 
as " hewers of wood and drawers of water," and 
also as tenants, who, in order to remain in their 
beloved homes, were willing to pay double rents 
to new masters. And many English and Scotch 
tenants, failing to obtain from the large proprie- 
tors the long leases guaranteed to them by the 
terms of the act of settlement, sold their interest 
in their holdings to the Irish and others, and re- 
tired in disgust from the country. It was mainly 
in this manner sprang up the custom of Ulster 
Tenant-right as a part of the unwritten law of the 
province, destined to share largely in the causes 
which operated to contrast the well-being of its 
land-occupiers with the insecurity and misery of 
the same class in other parts of Ireland. 

The effect of the Ulster settlement was to 
create a lesser Britain in Ireland, composed of 
men whose very proximity to their plundered 



The great irish struggle. ^19 

neighbors seemed to arouse their worst passions 
of hatred and sectarian bitterness. It deprived 
the native Irish of all title to the lands which their 
race had held from time immemorial, and reduced 
them at one sweep from the position of owners 
of the soil they tilled to that of outlaws or tenants- 
at-will, only countenanced through sheer neces- 
sity, and established between Ulster and the 
other provinces of Ireland a contrast at once pro- 
found and painful, and a discord of religion, feel- 
ing and nationality which has often manifested 
themselves since in civil disorder and diseraceful 
feuds, and which are only slowly disappearing in 
our own day. 

The coffers of James were so well filled with the 
profits of the Ulster settlement — with the pro- 
ceeds of the sale of broad acres and brand-new 
baronetcies — that his eyes turned to the other 
parts of Ireland for similar spoil. And a system 
of plunder by legal chicanery was invented. The 
counties still inhabited by the native Irish were 
Wicklow, Wexford, and those lying along the left 
bank of the Shannon, viz., Leitrim, Longford, 
and the western portion of Westmeath, Kings, 
and Queens Counties. 

"A Commission of Inquiry into Defective 
Titles" was sent down into these districts with 
directions to collect evidence as to the holding of 
the land therein, and what title the Crown had in 
any part of the same. It was gravely asserted 



220 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

that, whereas the Anglo-Norman settlers to whom 
the Plantagenet Kings granted these lands 300 
years back had in later evil days been driven 
from their grants by the original native owners, 
and retired to England, the deserted lands had, 
through the action of various statutes against 
absentees, reverted to the Crown. 

To give an appearance of legality to the pro- 
ceedings of the Commission, juries were empan- 
elled and forced to give verdicts in favor of the 
Crown ; witnesses were compelled to supply 
satisfactory evidence— the means employed for 
the purpose being of the most revolting descrip- 
tion. Courts-martial were held before which un- 
willing witnesses were tried on charges of treason,, 
imprisoned, pilloried, branded with red-hot irons, 
and even put to death, some being actually 
roasted on gridirons over charcoal fires. A 
horde of " discoverers" sprang up whose business 
it became to pick holes in men's titles to estates, 
sharing the proceeds with the King. Every legal 
trick and artifice was unscrupulously resorted to. 
The old pipe-rolls in Dublin and the patent rolls 
in the Tower of London were searched to dis- 
cover flaws in titles, clerical errors, inaccurate 
wording, every defect in fact which might frighten 
the present holder of the land into paying a 
heavy amount for a fresh patent, or, failing his ac- 
quiescence, would entitle the handing over of his 
estate to some " discoverer," willing to lay down 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 221 

a round sum for it. By such means as these 
over 430,000 acres were confiscated in the coun- 
ties above mentioned. The old proprietors were 
required to sign surrenders of their lands, and 
after setting apart a considerable portion for 
glebes, etc., and a fourth part for English " under- 
takers," the remainder was restored to " the more 
deserving " at fixed rents. 

In Longford the natives obtained less than one- 
third of the land promised them, in Leitrim half, 
in Queens county about two-thirds. In Wexford 
thirty-one " undertakers " obtained 33,000 acres, 
and only fifty-seven natives received any land at 
all, and that to the amount of 24,615 acres of the 
most unprofitable portion. The residue of the in- 
habitants of this county, some 14,500 persons, 
were given merely the choice of being evicted or 
becoming tenants-at-will. Many of the old pro- 
prietors took to the woods and became " outlaws;" 
others like the tribe of the O'Moores in Queens 
county were transplanted bodily into Kerry. 

In Wicklow the O'Byrnes, whose estates cov- 
ered half the county, were imprisoned on a charge 
of conspiracy, trumped up against them by Sir 
William Parsons, Lord Esmond, Sir Richard 
Graham and other prominent undertakers, on the 
evidence of notorious thieves. They were ulti- 
mately declared innocent and set at liberty, but 
their lands had been in the meantime declared 
forfeit and divided between Parsons and Esmond, 
and were not afterwards restored to them. 



~^ 



222 GLADSTONE— PARNELL, 

The King profited immensely by the various 
fines and forfeitures, and the customs duties 
swellf^'^' ■'! a single year from ^50 to ^10,000. 

The plantation policy flooded Ireland with a 
l-.i)-.^ ^ '" mpecunious Englishmen and Scotch- 
i:i; . . ittedly the scum of both nations — 
de io, oankrupts, fugitives from justice, land- 
jobbers and land-speculators, who soon, through 
ownership of land, secured power, influence and 
rank. They held aloof from the natives, culti- 
vated the " Castle," and were the embryo of the 
Protestant ascendency and aristocracy of later 
days. 

More than half the present Irish peerage 
sprang from such beginnings, of which two ex- 
amples will serve as types of the whole. The 
most remarkable of the new nobility was Richard 
Boyle. He was the son of a Herefordshire 
squire, fled from England on account of his 
perjuries and forgeries,' and landed in Dublin 
with only a few pounds in his pocket. He man- 
aged to get the office of deputy escheator of 
the lands of Munster, fraudulently became pos- 
sessed of a considerable extent of forfeited Irish 
estates ; and though imprisoned for felony six 
times in five years cheated justice, ingratiated 
himself with the various lord-deputies, and finally 
became first Earl of Cork and a privy-councillor. 

Of the same kidney was William Parsons, an- 
cestor of the Earls of Rosse. An English ad- 



THE CxREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 223 

venturer, arriving in Ireland with only £/^o in 
his pocket, he married a niece of the Surveyor- 
General, succeeded to that office, and became a 
commissioner of the escheated lands in Ulster, 
obtaining for himself 1,890 acres in Tyrone, and 
2,000 acres in Fermanagh alone. Ultimately 
through means as unscrupulous as those by which 
he deprived the O'Byrnes of their lands he se- 
cured over 8,000 acres and amassed an immense 
fortune. 

The system of " inquiry into defective titles " 
in Leinster had proved so remunerative that 
James determined to extend it to hitherto un- 
touched parts of the island. The province of 
Connaught was the only one which had not been 
planted. The proprietors had in 161 6 made a 
surrender of their lands to the Kinor to receive 
new patents, for which they paid fees amounting 
to ;^3,ooo. Owing, however, to the neglect of the 
clerks in Chancery, neither the surrenders nor 
regrants were enrolled, and the titles were all 
declared defective and the lands held to be 
vested in the Crown, A proclamation was issued 
for a new plantation, but the alarmed proprietors, 
aware that it was money the King was most in 
need of, offered him a bribe of ^10,000 (equal 
to ^100,000 at the present day) to induce him 
to abandon his design. The death of James put 
an end to the negotiations, and it was reserved 
for his son, Charles I., to replenish the royal 

13 



224 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

coffers at the expense of the Connaught land- 
owners. His agent in this matter was the no- 
torious Wentworth, who carried out his poHcy 
of " thorough " by dragooning both the Irish 
ParHament and the Irish Church, forcing the one 
to vote enormous subsidies, and the other to ac- 
cept his ideas in matters of rehgion. Under 
threats of confiscation, various subsidies were ob- 
tained, but at last after an elaborate hunting up 
and inquiry into old title-deeds and royal grants, 
the whole of Connaught was declared to be the 
property of the Crown ; and Commissioners with 
Wentworth at their head went into the province 
to find verdicts for the King. These were ob- 
tained by the same means as had succeeded in 
Leinster, extreme resistance being only met with 
in Galway alone, where juries were fined ^4,000 
apiece, and lodged in prison until the fines were 
paid, or their decisions retracted. The landlords 
at last submitted, paid heavily in fines, gave up a 
portion of their estates for Church purposes, and 
were so left in peace. 

The Irish met this ill-treatment on the part of 
the perfidious Stuart with a loyalty that may be de- 
scribed accordinor to taste as orenerous or imbecile. 
When the rebellion broke out in England, Charles 
appealed for help to his subjects in Ireland. 
They rose in arms, both Catholic and Protestant, 
and came nearer to victory than they had been 
for many a long year ; and then, when Charles 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 225 

was defeated and beheaded, Vae victis was the 
cry. OHver Cromwell came to Ireland. He suc- 
ceeded in quelling the revolt in favor of the King 
after the most wholesale massacres; and then oc- 
curred the greatest scheme of confiscation yet de- 
scribed in the history of the Irish nation. The 
whole of Ireland, 20,000,000 acres, was declared 
forfeit, and three-fourths of the inhabitants were 
to be expelled. Exemption was made in favor 
of some husbandmen, plowmen, laborers, and 
artificers, who would be necessary to the new 
planters, and of a few well affected to the Com- 
monwealth. The Irish soldiers who laid down 
their arms were forced to enlist for foreign ser- 
vice. The widows, wives and families of the sol- 
diery to the number of 100,000 souls were trans- 
ported to the West Indies to be the slaves or 
mistresses of the planters there. The rest of the 
Irish people — of Munster, Leinster, Ulster — gentle 
and simple, land-owners and burgesses, Presby- 
terians and Catholics, were forced, in the depth 
of the winter of 1655, to leave their homes, and 
cross the Shannon to allotments assigned to them 
in Clare and Connaught, the most barren portions 
of all Ireland, where they were hemmed in by the 
sea on the one side and a ring of soldiers on the 
other, who had orders to shoot down all who 
attempted to cross the boundary. The evacuated 
land, 15,582,487 acres in extent, was then dis- 
tributed, the government first reserving to itself 



226 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

the cities, church-lands, tithes, and the four coun- 
ties of Dublin, Kildare, Carlow and Cork. The 
cities were afterwards cleared of their inhabitants 
(who were nearly all of English descent) and 
sold to English merchants. The other twenty- 
three counties were then divided between those 
"adventurers" who had advanced money 
(amounting to ;^36o,ooo) to the Parliamentary 
army and the Parliamentary troops in lieu of 
arrears of pay due to them amounting to £i,- 
550,000. County Louth was given wholly to the 
adventurers, and the counties of Donegal, Derry, 
Tyrone, Leitrim, Fermanagh, Cavan, Monaghan, 
Wicklow, Wexford, Longford, Kilkenny and 
Kerry wholly to the soldiers. Then Antrim and 
Limerick and the nine counties lying diagonally 
between them, viz., Down, Armagh, Meath, West- 
meath, Kildare, Carlow, Kings, Queens, and Tip- 
perary were divided amongst both classes of 
claimants. Afterwards portions of Connaught, 
viz., the county of Sligo and parts of Mayo and 
Leitrim, were taken from the transplanted Irish 
to satisfy arrears of pay due to part of the English 
army who had fought in England during the civil 
war. Debentures were issued in recognition of 
each claim, and localities assigned to each regi- 
ment. These debentures were put up to auction, 
and large estates were put together by the pur- 
chase of them. 

And yet the plantation failed in its main object, 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 229 

as previous ones had done, through the gradual 
absorption of the planters among the native Irish 
notwithstanding strict prohibitions against mutual 
intercourse. And many estates through purchase 
or marriage fell ag^ain into the hands of old 
masters. Forty years after the settlement, it is 
related that numbers of the children of Crom- 
well's soldiers could not speak a word of English. 
Thus ended the last great unsettlement of the 
Irish land. In the reio^n of William III. there 
were some large confiscations, but they sunk into 
insignificance beside the wholesale confiscations 
in the days of Elizabeth, James and Cromwell. 
The reign of William III. is mainly remarkable 
for the passing of what is known as the Penal 
Code. The horrors of this code are increased 
by the fact that it was passed in spite of the 
solemn compact between the English and the 
Irish. In the civil war between James II. and 
William III. the Irish with characteristic imbecility 
had fouofht on the side of the State. The final 
issue was before the city of Limerick, which was 
defended by Sarsfield, an Irish general of genius. 
After a long siege it was finally agreed that the 
garrison should surrender with all the honors of 
war, and that in return they should get con- 
cessions establishing fully their religious liberty. 
The first article of the new treaty provided that 
" the Roman Catholics of this kingdom shall 
enjoy such privileges in the exercise of religion 



k 



230 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

as are consistent with the laws of Ireland, or as 
they did enjoy in the reign of Charles II., and 
their Majesties, as soon as their affairs will permit 
them to summon a Parliament in this kingdom, 
will endeavor to procure the Roman Catholics 
such further security in that particular as may 
preserve them from any disturbance upon the ac- 
count of their said religion." The ink of this 
was scarcely dry when Catholics were ordered at 
the meeting of the Irish Parliament to take an 
oath denying the Catholic doctrine of transub- 
stantiation and pronouncing the sacrifice of the 
Mass damnable and idolatrous. No Catholic 
could, of course, take such an oath, and the de- 
sired result was brought about. The Irish Par- 
liament consisted exclusively of Protestants. 
The penal code first took precautions against the 
education of Catholics. They were forbidden to 
keep school in Ireland and were prohibited at 
the same time to send their children to be edu- 
cated abroad ; then they were disarmed, and 
statutes were passed prohibiting the makers of 
weapons from receiving Catholic apprentices, and 
that authorized the authorities to search for arms 
in the houses of Catholics by night and by day. 
Catholic priests were commanded to leave the 
kingdom before May 9th, 1668. The bishops and 
priests who ventured to enter the country were 
subjected to imprisonment and banishment for the 
first offence, and put to death on the second. In 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 233 

the reiofn of Anne the code was rendered still more, 
severe. In order furdier to prevent the chance 
of education, a Catholic could not employ or act 
as a private tutor. He could not buy land, and 
if he did possess land he was obliged to leave it 
in equal parts among- all his children, so that the 
papist land might be distributed and have no 
chance of accumulating. Then there was an 
atrocious law by which an eldest son, on becoming 
a Protestant, could obtain possession of the entire 
land and disinherit the rest of his relatives. A 
Catholic could not have a lease for more than 
thirty-one years. All the Civil Service, all , the 
Municipalities, all the Army and the Navy, and the 
Professions, except that of medicine, were closed 
to the Catholics. A Catholic could not go more 
than five miles from his house without a pass- 
port. He could not keep a horse above the 
value of ^5. If the farm of a Catholic yielded 
one-third more than the yearly rent a Protestant 
by swearing to that fact could evict him ; and if a 
Protestant could be proved guilty of holding an 
estate in trust for a Catholic he could be dis- 
possessed. The Penal Code invaded doniestic 
life. A son becominor a Protestant could demand 
one-third of his father's income ; a wife be- 
coming a Protestant was free from her husband's 
control and could demand alimony. The decrees 
against priests were rendered also severe ; 3,000 
were registered, and others were liable to death, 



234 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

and in order that no further priests might be 
ordained no bishop was allowed in the country. 
Under these laws there grew up the hateful race 
known to Irishmen as Priest-Hunters, who for 
the sake of fifty pounds' reward in the case of a 
bishop, twenty in the case of a priest, and ten 
pounds in that of a school-master, betrayed min- 
isters of religion and the humble promoters of 
education to the authorities. The Catholics || 

refused to conform to these hideous laws. Mass 
was said on the mountains with scouts watching to 
see whether the British soldiers were approaching, 
and many priests fell martyrs to their creed. 
Finally the Catholics were prevented from voting 
for members of Parliament or members of cor- 
porations. The whole code was well summed up 
by the judge who declared that the law did not 
suppose the existence of any such person as an 
Irish Roman Catholic, nor could the people even 
breathe without the surveillance of the govern- 
ment. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE DESTRUCTION OF IRISH INDUSTRIES. 

THE final result of it all — the massacre, the 
confiscation, the Penal Laws — was that at 
the beginning of the eighteenth century the Irish 
Catholics were owners of just one-seventh of the 
soil of Ireland. On the other hand, the landlords 
were placed in a position that developed between 
them and the tenantry the worst and the fiercest 
passions. They were foreigners, and they had 
acquired the lands of the natives by robbery or 
by massacre. They were Protestants, and the 
Penal Code, making the Catholic religion a legal 
offence, gave to the Protestant creed a social as- 
cendancy. On the one side the landlords re- 
garded themselves as by race and by creed ele- 
vated as much above the tenant as ever had South 
Carolina planter been over negro slaves ; and on 
the other hand the tenant saw in the landlord 
a tyrant with the hated additions of foreign blood 
and a different creed. From this evil state of 
things grew up the melancholy relations between 
the Irish landlord and the Irish tenant which have 
produced in Ireland a more morbid condition of 

235 



236 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

things than exists in any other part of the world 
and involved the two classes in a persistent, re- 
lendess, sanguinary war, which is not even yet 
closed, the landlords on their side treating the 
tenants as creatures, not merely of another race 
and creed, but of another and inferior species. 
They inflicted upon them sufferings that few men 
would care to inflict on the lower animals ; and 
the tenants responded by forming assassination 
lodges and perpetrating murders cold-blooded, 
systematic, unrepented. 

" Of all the fatal gifts," says Mr. Froude, deal- 
ing with this part of the case, " which we bestowed 
on our unhappy possession [Ireland], the greatest 
was the English system of owning land. Land, 
properly speaking, cannot be owned by any man 
— it belongs to all the human race. Laws have to 
be made to secure the profits of their industry to 
those who cultivate it ; but the private property 
of this or that person is that which he is entitled to 
deal with as he pleases ; this the land never ought 
to be and never strictly is. In Ireland, as in all 
primitive civilizations, the soil was divided among 
the tribes. Each tribe collecUvely owned its 
district. Under the feudal system the proprietor 
was the Crown, as representing the nation ; while 
subordinate tenures were held with duties attached 
to them, and were liable on their non-fulfil- 
ment to forfeiture. In England the burden of 
defence was on the land. Every gendeman, ac- 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 237 

cording to his estate, was bound to bring so many 
men into the field properly armed and accoutred. 
When a standing army was substituted for the 
old levies, the country squires served as unpaid 
magistrates on the commission of the peace. 
The country squire system was, in fact, a develop- 
ment of the feudal system ; and, as we gave the 
feudal system to Ireland, so we tried long and 
earnestly to give them our landownership. The in- 
tention, doubtless, was as good as possible in both 
cases, but we had taken no trouble to understand 
Ireland, and we failed as completely as before. 
The duties attached to landed property died 
away or were forgotten — the ownership only re- 
mained. The people, retaining their tribal tra- 
ditions, believed that they had rights upon the 
land on which they lived. The owner believed 
that there were no rig^hts but his own. In Ene- 
land the rights of landlords have similarly sur- 
vived their duties, but they have been modified 
by custom or public opinion. In Ireland the pro- 
prietor was an alien, with the fortunes of the resi- 
dents upon his estates in his hands and at his 
mercy. He was divided from them in creed and 
language ; he despised them, as of an inferior 
race, and he acknowledged no interest in common 
with them. Had he been allowed to trample on 
them, and make them his slaves, he would have 
cared for them, perhaps, as he cared for his 
horses. But their persons were free, while their 



238 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

farms and houses were his ; and thus his only 
object was to wring out of them the last penny 
which they could pay, leaving them and their 
children to a life scarcely raised above the level 
of their own pigs." 

Meantime the British authorities took care to 
aggravate all the evils of the land system by an- 
other set of laws. Manufactures might have 
drawn away a section of the people from agricul- 
ture, and would thus have relieved the pressure 
upon the soil. There would then have been less 
of the competition which placed the tenantry at 
the mercy of the landlords : the landlords would 
have been compelled to offer the tenant lower 
rents: and thus manufactures would have fulfilled 
a double purpose — they would have given employ- 
ment to the persons immediately engaged in the 
manufactories, and would have made life easier 
to those outside manufacturing altogether: to 
those especially who were engaged in cultivating 
the soil. 

But even this outlet was forbidden, and a series 
of laws were passed, the effect and the deliberate 
object of which were to kill Irish manufactures. 

The attempts of England to interfere with Irish 
trade were made in two directions, namely, 
through legislative enactments in the English 
Parliament, and through the sinister influence of 
England over a too servile Irish Parliament. 
Looking at the relative commercial positions of 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 241 

England and Ireland at the present day, we are 
apt to overlook the fact that they were considered 
on terms of greater natural equality in past years, 
and that any advantage was rather on the side of 
the now poorer country. 

England had always been jealous of the least 
prospect of Irish prosperity ; but it was only in the 
reign of Charles II. that any direct attempt was 
made to interfere with her growing industries. 
Ireland was, as of old, " rich in cattle ; " and at this 
time had a large cattle-trade with England. Acts 
were passed in 1660-3 prohibiting all exports 
from Ireland to the colonies, also prohibiting the 
importation into England of Irish cattle, declaring 
the latter to be "a publick nuisance;" likewise 
forbidding the importation of Irish sheep, beef, 
pork, and, later on, of butter and cheese. Ire- 
land was also omitted from the " Navigation 
Act," in consequence of which no goods could 
thenceforward be carried in Irish-built ships under 
penalty of forfeiture of ship and cargo. 

The result of these acts was to destroy the 
shipping trade of the country at a blow, and to so 
reduce the value of cattle in Ireland that "horses 
which used to fetch thirty shillings each were sold 
for dog's meat at twelve pence each, and beeves 
that before brought fifty shillings were sold for 
ten." 

Unable to make a profit from growing cattle, 
the Irish turned their pastures into sheepwalks, 



242 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

and set to work to improve their woollen manu- 
factures with such success that the anger and 
jealousy of English traders were once more ex- 
cited, and the ruin of this trade also was decided 
on. An address was presented in 1698 by both 
English Houses of Parliament to William III., 
complaining of the injury done to the English 
woollen trade by the growth of that trade in Ire- 
land, recommending its discouragement, and the 
encouragement, in lieu thereof, of the linen trade, 
to which both Houses promised their utmost 
assistance. To this address His Majesty vouch- 
safed the following gracious reply: "I shall do 
all that in me lies to discourage the woollen man- 
facture in Ireland, and encourage the linen man- 
ufacture there, and to promote the trade of 
England." 

In view of promises of encouragement of the 
linen trade, the Irish Parliament, moved on by 
the King's Irish ministers, placed forthwith a pro- 
hibitive duty on all flannels, serges, and such like 
woollen stuffs ; but, not content with this, the 
English Parliament passed an act prohibiting the 
export of Irish wool or woollen goods to any port 
in the world, except a few English ports, and for- 
bidding its shipment from any but five or six ports 
in Ireland. 

It might have been expected that the promise 
to promote Irish linen industry would have been 
honorably kept. But the promise was distinctly 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 243 

violated. The importation of foreign linens into 
the kingdom was encouraged, and a disabling 
duty was laid on Irish sail-cloth, in which branch 
of the linen trade Ireland had prospered so much 
as to supply sails for the whole British navy. 

It was, however, not only in these large indus- 
tries that the infatuated jealousy of England was 
felt; such smaller matters as the Irish trade in 
glass, cotton, beer, and malt being struck at by 
heavy prohibitive duties. " England," says Froude, 
writing of these laws, "governed Ireland for her 
own interests ... as if rio;ht and wronof had 
been blotted out of the statute book of the uni- 
verse." 

The general result of these successive blows at 
nascent Irish industries was most disastrous. The 
mischief was dealt, not so much on the crushed 
Celtic race, as on the wealthy citizens of the towns 
and seaports, English-descended, and the main- 
stay of English ascendancy. The destruction of 
the woollen and linen trades fell most severely on 
the Protestants, and in fifty years as many as 
200,000 persons left the country for North 
America, where they afterwards formed the back- 
bone of resistance to England in theWarof Inde- 
pendence. 

We conclude by summarizing this sad relation 
of facts in the words of Lord Dufferin : 

" From Queen Elizabeth's reign until within a 
few years of the Union, the various commercial 



244 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

confraternities of Great Britain never for a mo- 
ment relaxed their relentless grip on the trades 
of Ireland. One by one each of our nascent in- 
dustries was either strangled in its birth or 
bound to the jealous custody of the rival interest 
in England, until at last every fountain of wealth 
was hermetically sealed, and even the traditions 
of commercial enterprise have perished through 
desuetude. What has been the consequence of 
such a system, pursued with relentless pertinacity 
for over 250 years? This: that, debarred from 
every other trade and industry, the entire nation 
flung itself back on 'the land' with as fatal an im- 
pulse as when a river whose current is suddenly 
impeded rolls back and drowns the valley it once 
fertilized."* 

" The entire nation flung itself back on the 
land," with the result that the tenants were placed 
at the absolute mercy of the landlords. Deprived 
of every other form of making a livelihood, the 
possession of land meant the chance of life ; the 
want of land, the certainty of death. With such 
a population craving for land as hope, food, life, 
the landlord was in a position as supreme as the 
armed keeper of the stores might be with the 
famished victims of a shipwreck on a raft in the 
middle of the ocean : and most cruelly did the 
landlord use the omnipotence which British laws 

* ♦' Irish Emigration, and the Tenure of Land in Ireland," 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 247 

had thus placed in his hands. The pictures of 
Irish hfe in the eighteenth century are drawn, as 
those of the preceding centuries, mainly by Eng- 
lish and Protestant hands ; and they give pictures 
almost as horrible of the manner in which a nation 
can be murdered. Rack-renting and eviction 
and robbery by act of Parliament had been sub- 
stituted for massacre by the sword, but the re- 
sults remained the same : the people were de- 
stroyed. Above all, one great weapon of the 
days of the gentle and poetic Spenser and of the 
pious Cromwell still remained. Famine was at 
once a means and a result. 

English writers of the eighteenth century teem 
with denunciations of the rack-renting and the 
other cruelties inflicted by landlords upon the 
tenants. Bishop Berkeley describes the landlords 
as " men of vulturine beaks and bowels of iron." 
Swift, writing about 1724, said : " These cruel land- 
lords are every day unpeopling the kingdom, for- 
bidding their miserable tenants to till the earth, 
against common reason and justice, and contrary 
to the practice and prudence of all other nations, 
by which numberless families have been forced to 
leave the kingdom, or stroll about and increase 
the number of our thieves and beofgrars. . . . The 
miserable dress and diet and dwellings of the peo- 
ple ; the general desolation in most parts of the 
kingdom ; the old seats of the nobility and gentry 

all in ruins, and no new ones in their stead ; the 
14 



248 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

families of farmers, who pay great rents, living in 
filth and nastiness, upon buttermilk and potatoes, 
without a shoe or stocking to their feet, or a house 
so convenient as an English hogsty to receive 
them — these, indeed, may be comfortable sights 
to an English spectator, who comes for a short 
time only to learn the language, and returns back 
to his own country, whither he finds all our wealth 
transmitted. . . . Nostra iniseria mao-na est. There 
is not one argument used to prove the riches of 
Ireland which is not a logical demonstration of its 
poverty. . . . The rise of our rents is squeezed out 
of the very blood and vitals and clothes and dwell- 
ings of the tenants, who live worse than English 
beggars. . . . ' Ye are idle, ye are idle,' answered 
Pharaoh to the Israelites, when they complained 
to His Majesty that they were forced to make 
bricks without straw." It was the sig-ht of mis- 
eries such as these that suggested to Swift his 
most savaofe and most terrible satire. It is worth 
while orivingr an extract from his " Modest Pro- 
posal for Preventing the Children of the Poor 
from being a Burden to their Parents." It is a 
most eloquent picture of Ireland in those days : 

"The number of souls," he writes, "in this 
kingdom being usually reckoned one million and 
a half, of these I calculate there may be about two 
hundred thousand couple whose wives are 
breeders ; from which number I subtract thirty 
thousand couple who are able to maintain their 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 249 

own children (although I apprehend there cannot 
be so many under the present distresses of the 
kingdom). . . . The question, therefore, is how 
this number (one hundred and twenty thousand 
children annually born) shall be reared and pro- 
vided for? — which, as I have already said, under 
the present situation of affairs, is utterly impos- 
sible by all the methods hitherto proposed. . . . 
I do therefore offer it to the publick consideration, 
that, of the one hundred and twenty thousand chil- 
dren already computed, twenty thousand may be 
reserved for breed. . . . That the remaining one 
hundred thousand may, at a year old, be offered 
in sale to persons of quality and fortune through 
the kingdom, always advising the mother to let 
them suck plentifully in the last month, so as to 
render them plump and fat for a good table. . . . 
I have reckoned, upon a medium, that a child just 
born will weigh twelve pounds, and, in a solar 
year, if tolerably nursed, will increase to twenty- 
eight pounds. I grant this food will be somewhat 
dear, and, therefore, very proper for landlords, 
who, as they have already devoured most of the 
parents, have the best title to the children." After 
dilating on the succulent properties of infant flesh 
for nurses: " I have already computed the charge 
of nursing a beggar's child (in which list I reckon 
all cottagers, laborers, and four-fifths of the farm- 
ers) to be about two shillings per annum, rags 
included ; and I believe no gentleman would re- 



250 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

pine to give ten shillings for the carcass of a good 
fat child, which, I have said, will make four dishes 
of excellent, nutritive meat, when he has only 
some particular friend or his own family to dine 
with him. Thus the squire will learn to be a 
good landlord and grow popular among the 
tenants ; the mother will have eight shillings neat 
profit, and be fit for work till she produces an- 
other child." He then suggests to the " more 
thrifty (such as the times require) to flay the car- 
cass, the skin of which, artificially dressed, would 
make admirable gloves for ladies, and summer 
boots for fine gentlemen ; " " the establishment of 
shambles, butchers being sure not to be wanting," 
and the " buying the children alive, and dressing 
them hot from the knife as we do roasting pigs." 
Having thus disposed of the infants, he came to 
the grown-up portion of the " beggars," and at 
the suggestion of "a very worthy person, a true 
lover of his country," recommends that "the want 
of venison might be well supplied by the bodies 
of young lads and maidens, not exceeding four- 
teen years, nor under twelve — so great a number 
of both sexes being ready to starve in every 
county for want of work and service. . . . Neither, 
indeed, could he deny that if the same use were 
made of several plump, young girls in this town 
[Dublin], who, without one single groat to their 
fortunes, cannot stir abroad without a chair, and 
appear at a play-house and assemblies in foreign 




SOLICITING AID FOR THE STARVING. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 253 

fineries which they never will pay for, the king- 
dom would not be the worse." And lastly, as to 
" these vast number of poor people who are aged, 
diseased, and maimed," he was " not in the least 
pained upon that matter, because it was very well 
known that they were every day dying and rot- 
ting by cold, famine, and filth, and vermin, as fast 
as could be reasonably expected." 

"Such," comments Healy, in his "Word for 
Ireland," " is the picture of Irish wretchedness 
when our population was only one million and a 
half, and before the phrase ' congested districts ' 
was invented." 

The result of this state of things was that semi- 
starvation was chronic throughout Ireland and 
absolute famine periodic. In i'j2<,-26-2'j-2S 
there were bad harvests; and in 1739 there was 
severe frost. In every one of these cases there was 
famine. In 1739 there was a prolonged frost, with 
the result that in 1740-41 there was one of the 
most severe famines in Irish history. This was 
the first occasion on which was observed the 
phenomenon that, as will be seen afterwards, has 
played a terrible and important part in Irish life. 
The frost brought on potato-rot, and the potato- 
rot brought on universal famine. There are 
plenty of contemporaneous records of the suffer- 
ing which this created. "Want and misery in 
every face, the rich unable to relieve the poor, the 
roads spread with dead and dying ; mankind of 



254 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

the color of the weeds and netdes on which they 
feed ; two or three, sometimes more, on a car, 
going to the grave, for the want of bearers to 
carry them, and many buried only in the fields and 
ditches where they perished. Fluxes and malig- 
nant fevers swept off multitudes of all sorts, so 
that whole villages were laid waste. If one for 
every house in the kingdom died, and that is very 
probable, the loss must be upwards of 400,000 
souls. This is the third famine I have seen in 
twenty years, and the severest ; these calamities 
arise from the want of proper tillage laws to pro- 
tect the husbandmen." " I have seen," says Bishop 
Barclay, " the laborer endeavoring to work at his 
spade, but fainting for the want of food, and 
forced to quit it. I have seen the aged father eat- 
ing grass like a beast, and in the anguish of his 
soul wishinor for his dissolution. I have seen the 
helpless orphan exposed on the dunghill, and 
none to take him in for fear of infection ; and I 
have seen the hungry infant sucking at the breast 
of the already expired parent." 

" I am well acquainted," said Fitzgibbon in the 
Irish House of Commons, in 1787 — a man who 
will reappear as one of the most violent sup- 
porters of British rule in Ireland — " with the prov- 
ince of Munster, and I know that it is impossible 
for human wretchedness to exceed that of the 
miserable peasantry of that province. I know 
that the unhappy tenantr)' are ground to powder 






THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 955 

by relentless landlords. I know that far from 
being able to give the clergy their just dues 
[Protestant tithes], they have not food or raiment 
for themselves ; the landlord grasps the whole. 
The poor people of Munster live in a more abject 
state of poverty than human nature can be sup- 
posed able to bear ; their miseries are intoler- 
able." 

These sufferings led to reprisals on the part of 
the tenants ; .and from this period there dates the 
rising of the organizations which gave back assas- 
sinations in answer to rack-rents and eviction. 
"White Boys," " WhIteFeet," "Peep-of-DayBoys," 
" Hearts of Steel" — these are among the many 
designations which these bodies were called by. 
They were sometimes founded by Catholics and 
sometimes by Protestants. The " Hearts of Steel," 
for instance, were all Protestants, who rose 
aofainst the exactions on the estates of Lord 
Donegal. The Irish Parliament answered the ex- 
cesses of the tenants by laws the savagery of 
which can scarcely be understood at this day. 
Death became a penalty for the most trivial 
offence, and every assize was followed by num- 
bers of executions. This, then, was the condition 
to which British law, confiscations, and the land 
system had brought the Irish nation. 

The vast majority of the natives were in a state 
of beggary and starvation. The land was over- 
run ; manufactures were dead ; between the land- 



256 



GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 



lords and the tenants there rao-ed civil war. All 
these phenomena will unfortunately reappear in 
the earlier part of t\vd present century. For the 
present we have to pause to describe a brilliant 
but too brief interval in the tale of monotonous 
gloom. We have to tell the story of the Irish 
Parliament. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE STORY OF THE IRISH PARLIAMENT. 

IT will not be necessary for the purposes of this 
book to trace the history of the Irish Parha- 
ment back to the dim ages in which it took its 
origin. It will suffice for our purpose to start 
from the point when the controversy between the 
demands of an Irish Parliament for supremacy in 
Ireland and the demands of the Eno^lish Parlia- 
ment to control its proceedings came to be a 
burning question. 

The first great enactment which limited the 
power of the Irish Parliament is known as Poyn- 
ing's Law. This was passed in the reign of 
Henry VII. The Irish had taken the side of the 
Pretender Perkin Warbeck, and Sir Edward 
Poyning had been sent over by the King to put 
down the rebellion. Poyning, after some doubt- 
ful successes in the field, called together a Parlia- 
ment in Drogheda, and immediately induced it to 
pass a series of severe enactments against the 
native Irish and those English who had taken up 
their side and their habits. It has been seen in 

a preceding chapter how efforts had been made 

257 



258 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

by means of the most savage laws to keep up the 
separation between the two races, and how, in 
spite of these things, the two races had com- 
bined and had gradually melted in spite of their 
different origins into one common nationality. 
In a Parliament which had met in the city of Kil- 
kenny in the reign of Edward III., the act known 
as the Statute of Kilkenny had been passed, by 
which it had been made high treason to bring up, 
marry with, foster or stand sponsor to a Celtic 
native of Ireland. It was also enacted that any 
Englishman who should dress himself after the 
fashion of the Irish people, adopt an Irish name, 
speak the Gaelic tongue, wear a moustache, as 
was the custom in Ireland, or ride without a sad- 
dle, as was also an Irish custom, had his property 
confiscated or was imprisoned for life if he was 
poor. 

Poyning's Parliament confirmed the Statute of 
Kilkenny, with important modifications made 
necessary by the failure of the previous enact- 
ment. For instance, the portions of the Statute 
of Kilkenny were omitted which prohibited the 
use of the Irish language, for by this time that 
lang-uaofe had become common even in the Eno^- 
lish pale, and the custom of riding without a sad- 
dle had also become so o^eneral that it was 
deemed hopeless to try to prevent it. The im- 
portant business, however, done by the Parlia- 
ment of Drogheda was the passing of an act 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 259 

which made two memorable and fatal laws. 
First, no Parliament was in future to be held in 
Ireland "until the chief governor and council had 
certified to the King, under the Great Seal, as 
well the causes and considerations as the acts 
they designed to pass, and till the same should be 
approved by the King and Council." The effect 
of this act was that when any bill was passed by 
the Irish Parliament, it had to be approved by the 
English Privy Council, and the act had to be for- 
warded to England for the purpose of receiving 
their sanction or disapproval. Often bills were 
returned by the Privy Council completely di- 
vested of their oricrinal meanino-. On beine re- 
turned to the Irish House of Commons no further 
alteration in the bill was permitted. 

The effect of this disastrous act was to deprive 
the Irish Parliament of any real power; the au- 
thority given to the English Parliament was fre- 
quently and scandalously used, and prevented the 
application to Ireland of any of that broadening 
of popular liberties which had become apparent 
in England. For a considerable period the Eng- 
lish settlers in Ireland raised some objection to 
this degradation of their Parliament — for it was 
their own Parliament — but in later years they 
fully accepted it. It was made up of men of their 
creed and race. The Parliament was deemed by 
them to serve a useful purpose, because it was 
through the decrees of that body they were able 



260 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

to finish by chicanery the transfer of the soil that 
had been begun by the sword. The Irish ParHa- 
ment was employed to pass acts of attainder and 
forfeiture by which the estates of the CathoHc 
Irish landlords were handed over to the English 
Protestant settlers, to confirm the defective titles 
that had been won on the field or in the law 
courts, and finally to pass the penal code by which 
the Catholics were excluded from the ownership 
of property and all possible share in the govern- 
ment of their country. 

But as time went on, the Irish Protestants 
found that the authority of the English Parliament 
was intended for use against all men of Irish 
birth whatever their creed or their original de- 
scent. The great positions of the country — the 
judgeships, the bishoprics, the places in the House 
of Peers and the House of Commons, the com- 
mands in the army and the navy, and all the high 
offices of state, were, in most cases, conferred on 
Enorlishmen. Englishmen were the " fathers in 
God " of dioceses that they never saw ; sate for 
constituencies which they had never cast eyes 
upon ; drew the salaries of offices in which they 
had never done a day's work ; and outside all 
these orreat things stood shiverino- the Irish Prot- 
estants of English blood, naked and scorned. 
Meantime, the poverty of the country became 
daily deeper ; the exaction of rent grew more 
difficult ; the kingdom was infested with bands of 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 261 

wandering beggars ; and gentlemen of tide, long 
descent and of ancestral homes sharing- in the 
general ruin, found the refusal of all positions a 
serious aggravation of their misfortunes. In the 
days of Dean Swift the government of Ireland 
was almost entirely in the hands of the Arch- 
bishop of Armagh, Primate Boulter. The cor- 
respondence of this prelate survives, and through 
it we are enabled to get many valuable glimpses 
of what the government of Ireland meant in his 
days. " Boulter," writes Lecky, in " Leaders of 
Public Opinion in Ireland," " was an honest but 
narrow man, extremely charitable to the poor, 
and liberal to the extent of warmly advocating 
the endowment of the Presbyterian clergy; but 
he was a strenuous supporter of the Penal Code, 
and the main object of his policy was to prevent 
the rise of an Irish party. His letters are chiefly 
on questions of money and patronage, and it is 
curious to observe how entirely all religious mo- 
tives appear to have been absent from his mind 
in his innumerable recommendations for church 
dignities. Personal claims, and above all the 
fitness of the candidate to carry out the English 
policy, seem to have been in these cases the only 
elements considered. His uniform policy was to 
divide the Irish Catholics and the Irish Protes- 
tants, to crush the former by disabling laws, to 
destroy the independence of the latter by con- 
ferring the most lucrative and influential posts 



262 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

upon Englishmen, and thus to make all Irish in- 
terests strictly subservient to those of England. 
The continual burden of his letters is the neces- 
sity of sending over Englishmen to fill important 
Irish posts. " The only v^ay to keep things quiet 
here," he writes, " and make them easy to the 
Ministry is by filling the great places with natives 
of England." He complains bitterly that only 
nine of the twenty-two Irish bishops were Eng- 
lishmen, and urges the Ministers " gradually to 
get as many English on the Bench here as can 
decently be sent hither." On the death of the 
Chancellor, writing to the Duke of Newcastle, he 
speaks of "the uneasiness we are under at the 
report that a native of this place is like to be 
made Lord Chancellor," " I must request of 
your Grace," he adds, " that you would lise your 
influence to have none but Englishmen put into 
the great places here for the future." 

When a vacancy in the See of Dublin was 
likely to occur he writes: "I am entirely of opinion 
that the new archbishop ought to be an English- 
man either already on the bench here or in Eng- 
land. As for a native of this country I can hardly 
doubt that, whatever his behavior has been and 
his promises may be, when he is once in that sta- 
tion he will put himself at the head of the Irish 
interest in the church at least, and he will natur- 
ally carry with him the college and most of the 
clergy here." 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 263 

Up to this time the protests against the degra- 
dation of the Irish Parliament had been confined 
to the native Irish. In a famous assemblacre, 
known as the Confederation of Kilkenny, the 
claim of the Irish Parliament to the exclusive 
power to niake laws for Ireland had been asserted ; 
and it was laid down with even more emphasis in 
a Parliament called together by James II. during 
his war with William III. It was not till 1698 
that the first Protestant voice was raised in em- 
phatic protest. The author of this protest was 
Molyneux — one of the members for Trinity Col- 
lege ; Molyneux was, of course, a Protestant; no- 
body but a Protestant at the time had a seat in 
the Parliament. He was a man of ereat learnino- 
and ability ; of which among many other proofs is 
the fact that he was the " ingenious friend " to 
whom Locke dedicated his immortal essay. Moly- 
neux in his book, "The Case of Ireland Stated," 
laid down the claim of the Irish .Parliament in 
clear and unmistakable lanena^e. He had been 
induced to this train of thought by the infamous 
laws which had destroyed the woollen trade of 
Ireland, and in destroying that trade had terribly 
aggravated the miseries of the unhappy nation. 
The book was written in moderate and decorous 
language ; but it was too strong for the govern- 
ment of the day; the English Parliament decreed 
that it was dangerous, and that accordingly it 
should be burned by the common hangman. 



264 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

But the spirit which Molyneux aroused was 
immortal, and indeed Hes at the root of the Na- 
tional movement of to-day. There soon came, 
too, an event which was destined to ao-o-ravate 
the feelinofs of resentment which had been created 
by the restrictions on trade and by the rigid ex- 
clusion of the Irish gentry from all offices of pay 
and power. 

In the year 171 9 Hester H. Sherlock brought 
an action against Maurice Annesley in reference 
to some property in the county of Kildare. The 
case was tried before the Irish Court of Ex- 
chequer, which decided in favor of Maurice An- 
nesley, the respondent in the case. Hester Sher- 
lock brought the case on appeal to the Irish 
House of Peers, and they reversed the judgment 
of the Court of Exchequer. Annesley then took 
the case to the English House of Peers, and they 
reversed the decision of the Irish Peers and con- 
firmed that of the Irish Court of Exchequer. 
This was regarded throughout Ireland as a gross 
infringement of the rights of the Irish Parliament. 
The Sheriff of Kildare acted upon the general 
opinion and recognized only the decision of the 
Irish House of Peers. He declined to obey the 
decree both of the Irish Court of Exchequer and 
the English House of Lords, and refused to com- 
ply with an order for placing Annesley in posses- 
sion of the property. The Court of Exchequer 
thereupon inflicted a fine upon the sheriff. The 






THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 265 

Irish House of Lords removed the fine and passed 
a resolution declaring that the sheriff had be- 
haved with integrity and courage. 

The English Parliament was not slow to respond 
to this open defiance of its authority, and it passed 
the famous law known as the Vlth of George I, 
The following extract will show what this law is : 
" Whereas, . . . the lords of Ireland have of late, 
against law, assumed to themselves a power and 
a jurisdiction to examine and amend the judg- 
ments and decrees of the courts of justice in Ire- 
land ; therefore, ... it is declared and enacted 
. . . that the King's Majesty, by and with the ad- 
vice and consent of the lords spiritual and tempo- 
ral and Commons of Great Britain in Parliament 
assembled, had, hath, and of right ought to have, 
full power and authority to make laws and stat- 
utes of sufficient force and validity to bind the 
people of the kingdom of Ireland. And it is fur- 
ther enacted and declared that the House of 
Lords of Ireland have not, nor of right ought to 
have, any jurisdiction to judge of, affirm, or re- 
verse, any judgment . . . made in any court in 
the said king-dom." 

It was in the height of the exasperation caused 
by arrogant denial of the rights of the Irish Par- 
liament that there came into Irish affairs one of 
the most potent influences by which they were 
ever guided. Dean Swift had about this time re- 
turned to Ireland, as he said himself, '* like a rat 

15 



266 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

dying" in its hole." He saw all around him the 
fearful sufferings of the people, the gross injus- 
tice of the landlords, the cruel harvest which the 
wicked legislation of England was reaping in 
barren fields, depopulated villages, and crowded 
and tumultuous beggary. It was then he began 
to publish that series of pamphlets on the 
Irish question which can be read with as much 
profit at this day as when they were first pub- 
lished. They afford, perhaps, the most graphic 
and telling picture of a nation's misery ever pro- 
duced. An accident soon enabled him to bring 
the growing resentment of Ireland into direct and 
successful collision with English authorities. Sir 
Robert Walpole, an English Premier of the time, 
gave a patent to a man named Wood for the pur- 
pose of coining ;^8,ooo in half-pence. The im- 
pression to-day is that the copper was badly 
wanted ; that Wood's half-pence were as good as 
those already existing, and that the Minister had 
no sinister idea of debasing the coinage of the 
country. " But," as Lecky remarks, " there were 
other reasons why the project was both dangerous 
and insulting. Though the measure was one 
profoundly affecting Irish interests, it was taken 
by the Ministers without consulting the Lord 
Lieutenant or Irish Privy Council, or the Parlia- 
ment, or any one in the country. It was another 
and a signal proof that Ireland had been reduced 
to complete subservience to England, and the 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 267 

patent was granted to a private individual by the 
influence of the Duchess of Kendal, the mistress 
of the King, and on the stipulation that she should 
receive a large share of the profits." 

Swift published a number of letters upon the 
new coin, with the result that the country was 
roused to a state of fury. Both Houses of the 
Irish Parliament passed addresses against it ; 
grand juries of Dublin and the gentry all over the 
country condemned it, and finally it had to be 
withdrawn from circulation. The indirect effects 
of this were more important than the mere small 
point of whether the coin was genuine or base. 
Swift, in his book, laid down clearly the same 
doctrine as Molyneux of the sole right of the 
Irish Parliament to pass measures for Ireland. 
He was a loyal subject of the King, he declared, 
not as King of England, but King of Ireland. 
Ireland was a free nation, which implied in it the 
power of self-legislation, for such, "Government 
without the consent of the governed is the very 
definition of slavery," says Swift ; a maxim, 
by the way, that applies as much to the case of 
Ireland to-day as to the case of Ireland in his 
days. Thus the demands of Ireland were once 
more put forward in clear terms that resounded 
all over the country. The second important re- 
sult was the union between the much-divided 
classes and sections of the Irish nation, which this 
legislation produced for almost the first time. " I 



268 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

find," wrote Primate Boulter, " by my own letters 
and others' enquiry, that the people of every reli- 
gion, country, and party, here are alike set 
against Wood's half-pence, and that their agree- 
ment in this has had a very unhappy influence on 
the state of this nation, by bringing on intimacies 
between Papists and Jacobites and the Whigs." 
The third and most satisfactory result of all was 
that it marked the first peaceful triumph of Ire- 
land over English interference. " There is," says 
Lecky, "no more momentous epoch in the his- 
tory of a nation than that in which the voice of the 
people has first spoken, and spoken with success. 
It marks the transition from an age of semi-bar- 
barism to an age of civilization — from the govern- 
ment of force to the government of opinion. 
Before this time rebellion was the natural issue 
of every patriotic effort in Ireland. Since then 
rebellion has been an anachronism and a mistake. 
The age of Desmond and of O'Neill had passed. 
The age of Grattan and of O'Connell had 
begun." 

It was these various causes that produced the 
rise in the Irish Parliament of the historic body 
of men known as the patriot party. When first 
these champions of Irish rights started out on 
their enterprise never did difficulties appear more 
gigantic, never task more hopeless. By various 
methods both Houses of Parliament had been 
reduced to a state of corruption and of subservi- 




' ^ All 



I 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 271 

ency perhaps unequalled in the annals of legisla- 
tive assemblies. 

The Catholics had no share whatever in the 
election of the Parliament, and even the Protes- 
tant minority was practically excluded from any 
real control. The plan of the English kings had 
been, in general, to make no increase whatever in 
the number of county constituencies; all new 
members were eiven to the borouirhs. In some 
cases the new borouMis mio-ht be described as 

o o 

non-existent ; others consisted of but a few 
houses and inhabitants. The Stuarts had been 
the most shameless in this manufacture of unin- 
habited boroughs. James I. summoned a Parlia- 
ment in 1 613. There being about one hundred 
Catholics to one Protestant in Ireland at this 
time, it was naturally feared that there would be 
a Catholic majority in the Parliament (this was 
before the Catholics were excluded), and imme- 
diate measures were taken to prevent such a ma- 
jority from being elected. Seventeen new coun- 
ties and forty boroughs were created by royal 
charter in places thinly or not at all inhabited, 
and towns as yet only projected on the estates of 
the leadinor undertakers were named as borouehs. 
" Forty boroughs," quoth the King, when remon- 
strated with ; "suppose I had made four hundred 
— the more the merrier." There was, after all, 
a very strong Catholic minority in the lower 
House, but after an unseemly dispute about the 



272 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

Speakership the CathoHcs left the House in a 
body. 

James I. passed away, and left his throne and 
some of his propensities to his son Charles before 
another Parliament met in Dublin, in 1 634. Straf- 
ford was Lord Deputy, and in pursuance of his 
policy of "Thorough," exerted all his energies to 
satisfy his master's eager requests for money. 
One of his first acts was to summon a Parliament, 
in which, by judicious management, the propor- 
tion of Catholics was reduced from nearly one- 
half to one- third of the assembly. By further 
official manipulation the two Houses were soon 
brought into a condition satisfactory to the Lord 
Deputy. The House of Lords consisted of 
about one hundred and seventy-eight temporal 
and twenty-two spiritual peers. Many of the 
temporal peers were Scotchmen and Englishmen, 
having no connection whatsoever with the coun- 
try, and having never seen it in their lives. The 
Bishops, nominees of the Ministry, were alto- 
gether out of sympathy with the people ; half of 
them were Englishmen, to account for whose con- 
duct Swift could only suggest that the real pre- 
lates sent over from England had been waylaid, 
robbed and stripped outside London by highway- 
men, who now masqueraded in their clothes. 

The lower House consisted of three hundred 
members, the bulk of whom were nominees of the 
great Protestant land-owmers, members of the 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 273 

upper House ; two hundred being returnable by 
single individuals, and altogether two-thirds by 
less than a hundred persons, who openly made 
large sums of money by the sale of seats. Place- 
men and pensioners of the government filled 
many seats. There was no Ministry responsible 
to the Parliament; the administration consisted 
of the English Viceroy and his English Secretary, 
nominees of the English government, together 
with a Privy Council, over none of whom had the 
Houses any control, and whose chief business was 
the carrying of measures pleasing to their mas- 
ters across the channel, by means of bribes, of 
titles and places, and the playing off of the differ- 
ent factions against each other. 

The patriot party of later days, headed by 
men like Flood, Lucas, Daly, and Burgh, made, 
night after night, persistent attacks along the 
whole line of monopoly and misgovernment — the 
law of Poyning, the Penal Code, the absence of 
an Irish Mutiny Bill, the bloated Pension List, the 
jurisdiction of the British Parliament. 

The government, harassed and perplexed, tried 
their old arts of seduction, but with only trifling 
success. The weakest of the patriots were bought 
over, but the remainder closed up their ranks and 
came on again to the assault. The first victory 
achieved by them was to obtain, in 1 768, the pass- 
ing of a bill limiting to seven years the duration 
of Parliament, which hitherto lasted during an en- 



274 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

tire reign, an act which Lecky describes as having 
laid "die foundation of paHiamentary influence 
and independence in Ireland." To the first 
House of Commons elected under this act, the 
patriots were returned in greater force than be- 
fore, and soon to their ranks was added the 
power, the genius, the eloquence, and the enthu- 
siasm of Henry Grattan, who entered Parliament 
in 1775 for the borough of Charlemont. 

The next year the revolt in the North Ameri- 
can colonies broke out, and England, her avail- 
able troops being employed against the colonists, 
was obliged to leave Ireland defenceless, though 
American privateers and French men-of-war were 
hovering round her coasts. The Irish applied to 
the English authorities for soldiers to defend Ire- 
land ; the authorities declared that they had no 
troops to spare for Ireland. The Irish, under the 
circumstances, felt justified in taking means for 
their own defence. Men were enrolled rapidly 
all over the country ; before long no less than 
150,000 men were in arms, and thus arose the 
body known as the Irish Volunteers. 

Raised originally for the defence of Ireland 
against the enemies of England, the "Volunteers" 
naturally turned their eyes to the evils of their 
own country. The position of England, too, at 
that moment, showed that the hour had come 
when Ireland could demand her rights, with a 
reasonable chance of having them accepted. The 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 275 

Volunteers outside Parliament and the patriot 
party inside Parliament then devoted themselves 
to demanding an immediate redress of all their 
grievances. It is characteristic of the whole his- 
tory of Ireland that this National party displayed 
the highest spirit of religious toleration. The 
volunteers were Protestant to a man. The very 
first thing they did was to proclaim the right of 
every man in Ireland to the free exercise of his 
religion and to his due share of political rights 
altogether apart from his religious persuasion. 
Towards the close of the year 1781 the officers 
of the First Ulster Regiment of Volunteers, com- 
manded by Lord Charlemont, resolved to hold a 
convention of the Ulster Delegates at Dungan- 
non, and this convention assembled in the church 
in that ancient city in 1782. Then "the repre- 
sentatives," writes Mitchell, " of the regiments of 
Ulster — one hundred and forty-three corps — 
marched to the sacred place of meeting, two and 
two, dressed in various uniforms, and fully armed. 
Deeply they felt the great responsibilities which 
had been committed to their prudence and cour- 
age ; but they were equal to their task, and had 
not lightly pledged their faith to a trustful coun- 
try. The aspect of the church, the temple of re- 
ligion, in which, nevertheless, no grander cere- 
mony was ever performed, was imposing, or, it 
might be said, sublime. Never, on that hill where 
ancient piety had fixed its seat, was a nobler 



276 GLADSTONE— PARNELL, 

offering made to God than this, when two hun- 
dred of the elected warriors of a people assem- 
bled in His tabernacle, to lay the deep founda- 
tions of a nation's liberty." 

The convention then passed several resolutions, 
of which the following are the more important. 
First, it was " resolved unanimously, that a claim 
of any body of men, other than the King, Lords 
and Commons of Ireland, to make laws to bind 
this kingdom, is unconstitutional, illegal, and a 
grievance." Second, resolved with one dissent- 
ing voice only, " that the powers exercised by the 
Privy Councils of both kingdoms, under, or under 
color or pretence of, the law of Poyning, are un- 
constitutional and a grievance." " Resolved unani- 
mously, that the independence of judges is equally 
essential to the impartial administration of justice 
in Ireland as in England, and that the refusal or 
delay of this right to Ireland makes a distinction 
where there should be no distinction, may excite 
jealousy where perfect union should prevail, and 
is in itself unconstitutional and a grievance." 
But, perhaps, the two most important resolutions 
of all were the final closing ones : " Resolved, 
with two dissenting voices only to this and the 
following resolution, that we hold the right of 
private judgment in matters of religion to be 
equally sacred in others as ourselves." "Re- 
solved, therefore, that as men and as Irishmen, as 
Christians and as Protestants, we rejoice in the 




THE LATE MR. HENRY GRATTAN, M. P. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 279 

relaxation of the penal laws against our Roman 
Catholic fellow-subjects, and that we conceive the 
measure fraught with the happiest consequences 
to the union and prosperity of the inhabitants of 
Ireland." 

Meantime the patriot party in Parliament acted 
in co-operation with the armed patriots outside. 
They saw that the time had come for pressing 
forward the claims of Ireland. Grattan was now 
the leader of the patriot party, and he first made 
an attack upon the law preventing Ireland from 
carrying on trade with the colonies. After some 
hesitation the motion was carried, and Ireland's 
right to free trade with other countries was estab- 
lished. Immediately after this came a move in 
favor of a greater and more important reform. 
Grattan brought in a Bill declaring in almost the 
same language as the resolutions passed at the 
Dungannon convention, that the King, Lords, and 
Commons of Ireland were the only persons com- 
petent to enact the laws of Ireland. A similar 
measure had been brought forward in the year 
1780, but then it had been rejected. But in 1782 
things were in a very different position. England 
had been beaten at Saragossa ; American inde- 
pendence had been established, and the patriot 
party had a backing of 100,000 armed men. At 
last the British government yielded, and the Duke 
of Portland was sent over as Lord Lieutenant to 
grant the prayer of Ireland, On the i6th of 



280 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

April, 1782, Grattan brought forward his Decla- 
ration of Independence. 

" On that day a large body of the Volunteers 
were drawn up in front of the Old Parliament 
House of Ireland. Far as the eye could stretch 
the morning sun glanced upon their weapons and 
upon their flags ; and it was through their parted 
ranks that Grattan passed to move the emanci- 
pation of his country. Never had a great orator 
a nobler or a more pleasing task. It was to pro- 
claim that the strife of six centuries had termi- 
nated ; that the cause for which so much blood 
had been shed, and so much genius expended in 
vain, had at last triumphed ; and that a new era 
had dawned upon Ireland. Doubtless on that 
day many minds reverted to the long night of op- 
pression and crime through which Ireland had 
struggled towards that conception which had been 
as the pillar of fire on her path. But now at last 
the promised land seemed reached. The dream 
of Swift and of Molyneux was realized. The 
blessings of independence were reconciled with 
the blessings of connection ; and in an emanci- 
pated Parliament the patriot saw the guarantee 
of the future prosperity of his country and the 
Shekinah of liberty in the land. It was impos- 
sible, indeed, not to perceive that there was still 
much to be done — disqualifications to be re- 
moved, anomalies to be rectified, corruption to be 
overcome ; but Grattan at least firmly believed 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 281 

that Ireland possessed the vital force necessary 
for all this, that the progress of a healthy public 
opinion would regenerate and reform the Irish 
Parliament as it reo^enerated and reformed the 
Parliament of England ; and that every year the 
sense of independence would quicken the sym- 
pathy between the people and their representa- 
tives. It was, indeed, a noble triumph, and the 
orator was worthy of the cause. In a few glowing 
sentences he painted the dreary struggle that had 
passed, the magnitude of the victory that had 
been achieved, and the grandeur of the prospects 
that were unfolding. ' I am now,' he exclaimed, 
' to address a free people. Ages have passed 
away, and this is the first moment in which you 
could be distinguished by that appellation. I 
have spoken on the subject of your liberty so 
often that I have nothing to add, and have only to 
admire by what heaven-directed steps you have 
proceeded until the whole faculty of the nation is 
braced up to the act of her own deliverance. I 
found Ireland on her knees ; I watched over her 
with paternal solicitude ; I have traced her pro- 
gress from injuries to arms, and from arms to 
liberty. Spirit of Swift, spirit of Molyneux, your 
genius has prevailed ! Ireland is now a nation ! 
In that character I hail her ; and, bowing in her 
august presence, I say, Esto perpetual' " 

In England the change in the position of the 
Irish Parliament obtained the approval of all en- 



282 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

lightened men Edmund Burke wrote to Lord 
Charleinont: *' I am convinced that no reluctant 
tie can be a strong one ; I believe that a natural, 
cheerful alliance will be a far more secure link of 
connection than any principle of subordination 
borne with grudging and discontent." Fox and 
Grey, the leaders of the English Whig party, were 
equally delighted with the change. " I would 
have the Irish government," said Fox in 1797, 
" regulated by Irish voters and Irish prejudices, 
and I am convinced that the more she is under 
Irish government the more she will be bound to 
English interests." 

The independence of the Irish Parliament was 
now achieved, and, following quickly in its wake, 
came the attainment of objects which had been 
striven for long and vainly while that body was 
under the thumb of an alien administration. Par- 
liament met yearly, and not at fluctuating inter- 
vals as before. The independence of the judicial 
bench was secured by an act providing that their 
commissions should be valid during good beha- 
vior, their salaries ascertained and established, 
and their removal dependent on an address from 
both Houses. The right of the Commons to 
originate money bills, as in England, was estab- 
lished, as was also their right to assign how money 
voted by them should be expended. 

But there were some points on which Grattan 
appealed for further reform. The pension list, as 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 283 

has been seen, was one of the most potent agen- 
cies in the hands of the Crown for the corruption 
of members. The enormity of the grievance is 
sufficiently shown by the fact that the money 
spent in pensions in Ireland was not merely rela- 
tively, but absolutely, greater than was expended 
for that purpose in England ; that the pension 
list trebled in the first thirty years of George III. ; 
and that in 1793 it amounted to no less than 
;^i 24,000. As a proof of the number of persons 
to whom pensions were given, it may be men- 
tioned that on the Irish Pension List there were 
the names of the mistresses of George I., of the 
Queen Dowager of Prussia, sister of George II., 
and of the Sardinian Ambassador who negotiated 
the peace of Paris. The efforts of Grattan to 
reduce this scandalous list were repeated over 
and over again. He brought forward the subject 
in 1785 and in 1791, but the government always 
opposed him, and he was as often defeated. 

The legislation of the Irish Parliament upon 
one question, however, proceeded with rapidity 
and with extraordinary liberality. The reader is 
already aware that the Irish Parliament at this 
time consisted exclusively of Irish Protestants and 
Irish landlords, but that Parliament had scarcely 
received its independence when it proceeded to 
carry out the great principles which had been 
laid down by the Protestant volunteers' meeting 
in the Protestant Church of Dungannon. The 



284 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

toleration, indeed, of the Irish Parliament began 
at a date even anterior to its independence. In 
1768 a Bill had been passed without a division 
against the Penal Code, and its rejection was due 
to the English Parliament. In 1774-78 and 1782, 
and finally in 1792, other relief Bills were also 
enacted, and by this time some of the worst griev- 
ances of the Irish Catholics were removed. But 
there were other grievances which still remained, 
and which were of the very \-tmost importance. 
The Irish Catholic had not a rio-ht to vote for a 
member of Parliament or to become a member 
of Parliament, and he had no place in the higher 
ranks of the law or the army. Under the influ- 
ence of a native legislature the feeling- against the 
Catholics was now rapidly passing away ; indeed, 
it had begun to disappear at even an earlier date. 
Lecky quotes the following passage from the 
preface to Molyneux's " Case of Ireland," which 
proves that as far back as 1770 religious bigotry 
was already disappearing : 

" The rigor of Popish bigotry is softening very 
fast ; the Protestants are losing all bitter remem- 
brance of those evils which their ancestors suf- 
fered, and the two sects are insensibly gliding into 
the same common interests. The Protestants, 
through apprehensions from the superior numbers 
of the Catholics, were eager to secure themselves 
in the powerful protection of an English Minister, 
and to gain this were ready to comply with his 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 285 

most exorbitant demands ; the Catholics were 
alike willing to embarrass the Protestants as their 
natural foes ; but awakening from this delusion, 
they begin to condemn their past follies, reflect 
with shame on having so long played the game 
of an artful enemy, and are convinced that with- 
out unanimity they never can obtain such con- 
sideration as may entitle them to demand, with 
any prospect of success, the just and common 
rights of mankind. Religious bigotry is losing 
its force everywhere. Commercial and not re- 
ligious interests are the objects of almost every 
nation in Europe." 

But in a moment the Irish Parliament was in 
full possession of its powers. The car of progress 
proceeded with unexampled rapidity. In 1793 a 
bill was introduced the object of which was to 
allow the Catholics to vote. This act was per- 
haps the most noteworthy ever carried by the 
native legislature, when we consider that it was 
passed by a Parliament largely composed of 
placemen and of pensioners. 

The action of the Irish Parliament on this ques- 
tion of religious toleration suggests an inquiry 
which has engaged many minds. It will be seen 
by-and-by that one of the reasons which Pitt gave 
for desiring the act of Union was that in this way 
the cause of Catholic emancipation would be ad- 
vanced ; and he seriously laid down the proposi- 
tion that Catholic emancipation was impossible 
16 



A 



2SG GLADSTON K— r ARN KLL. 

under a native Irish Parliament. Somewhat 
simihir arguments are put forward by Unionists 
of the present day. The real truth is palpable to 
every candid observer that the Irish Parliament 
was thoroughly tolerant ; that it would have car- 
ried religioui^ toleration to its logical length ; and 
one of the many bad effects that the act of Union 
brought about was the manufacture of religious 
bigotry where such bigotry did not before exist. 
Lecky, one of the Unionists of to-day, writing in 
earlier years, is strongly of this opinion. It has 
been argued that Catholic emancipation was an 
impossibility as long as the Irish Parliament lasted ; 
for in a country where the great majority were 
Roman Catholics it would be folly to expect the 
members o{ the dominant creed to surrender their 
ascendancy. The arguments against this view 
are, I believe, overwhelming. The injustice of 
the disqualification was far more striking before 
the Union than after it. In the one case the Ro- 
man Catholics were excluded from the Parliament 
of a nation of which they were the great majority; 
in the other they were exchidixl from the Parlia- 
ment o\' an empire in which they were a small 
minority. At a time when scarcely any public 
opinion existed in Ireland, when the Roman 
Catholics were nearly quiescent, and when the 
leaning oi' Government was generally illiberal, the 
Irish Protestants admitted their fellow-subjects to 
tlie magistracy, to the jury-box, and to the fran- 



THE (]REAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 287 

chise. By this last measure they gave them an 
amount of pohtical power which necessarily im- 
plied complete emancipation. Even if no leader 
of genius had risen in the Roman Catholic ranks, 
and if no spirit of enthusiasm had animated their 
councils, the influence possessed by a body who 
formed three- fourths of the population, who were 
rapidly rising- in wealth, -And who could send their 
representatives to Parliament, would have been 
sufficient to ensure their triumph. If the Irish 
Legislature had continued, it would have been 
found impossible to resist the demand for reform; 
and every reform, by diminishing the overgrown 
power of a few Protestant landholders, would have 
increased that of the Catholics. The concession 
accorded in 1 793 was, in fact, far greater and 
more important than that accorded in 1829, and 
it placed the Catholics, in a great measure, above 
the mercy of Protestants. But this was not all. 
The sympathies of the Protestants were being 
rapidly enlisted in their behalf. The generation 
to which Charlemont and Flood belonged had 
passed away, and all the leading intellects of the 
country, almost all the Opposition, and several 
conspicuous members of the Government, were 
warmly in favor of emancipation. Thci rancor 
which at present exists between the members of 
the two creeds appears then to have been almost 
unknown, and the real obstacle to emancipation 
was not the feelings of the people, but the policy 



288 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

of the Government. The Bar may be considered 
on most subjects a very fair exponent of the edu- 
cated opinion of the nation ; and Wolfe Tone ob- 
served, in 1792, that it was ahiiost unanimous in 
favor of the CathoHcs ; and it is not without im- 
portance, as showing the tendencies of the rising- 
generation, that a large body of the students of 
Dublin University in 1795 presented an address 
to Grattan. thanking liim for his labors in the 
cause. The Roman Catholics were rapidly gain- 
ing the public opinion of Ireland, when the Union 
arrayed against them another public opinion 
which was deeply prejudiced against their faith, 
and almost entirely removed from their influence. 
Compare the twenty years before the Union with 
the twenty years that followed it, and the change 
is sufficiently manifest. There can scarcely be a 
question that if Lord Fitzwiiliam had remained in 
office the Irish Parliament would readily have 
given emancipation. In the United Parliament 
for many years it was obstinately rejecteci, and 
if O'Connell had never arisen it would probably 
never have been granted unqualified by the veto. 
The historian Lecky, above quoted, says : " Few 
facts in Irish history are n^ore certain than that 
the Irish Parliament would have carried emanci- 
pation if Lord Fitzwiiliam had remained in power." 
" But for the Union," said O'Connell, " full and 
complete emancipation would have been carried 
before 1S03." 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 289 

It is thus perfectly clear that if the Irish Legis- 
lature had remained in existence the Catholics 
would have been soon admitted to its councils. 
Anybody can clearly see that such a reform 
would have in all probability prevented all the 
dread disasters that have afflicted Ireland since 
the destruction of her Legislature. The Irish 
Catholics being the majority, would in time have 
had a commanding voice in the councils of the 
country. They would thus have been able to 
bring before Parliament the evils of the land sys- 
tem and the intolerable grievances of the tenants. 
They would likewise have been able to join their 
Protestant fellow-countrymen in resisting any at- 
tempts at interference with Irish manufactures. 
In this way it is perfectly clear that there would 
have been no opportunity for the growth of the 
terrible evils, the history of which occupies the 
main part of all annals dealing with the condition 
of Ireland after the Act of Union. 

The independent native Legislature proceeded 
to justify its existence in other respects also. 
During its existence the country had its first 
gleam of prosperity. On this point evidence is 
abounding and incontestable. The testimony 
comes as emphatically from the men who de- 
stroyed the Legislature as from those who de- 
fended it. The increase of Ireland's prosperity 
under the native Legislature was by a curious 
reversal of facts and ideas one of the arguments 



290 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

by which Pitt justified the extinction of Parlia- 
ment. "As Ireland," he said, " was so prosperous 
under her own Parliament, we can calculate that 
the amount of that prosperity will be trebled by a 
British Legislature." Pitt then went on to quote 
a speech of Mr. Foster, a member of the Irish 
Legislature in 1785, in these words: "The ex- 
portation of Irish produce to England amounts to 
two millions and a half annually, and the exporta- 
tion of British produce to Ireland amounts to one 
million," Quoting Foster again, he said, " Britain 
imports annually ;^2, 500,000 of our products, all, 
or very nearly all, duty free, and we import 
almost a million of hers, and raise a revenue on 
every article of it." Pitt went on to say, " But 
how stands the case now (1799) ? The trade at 
this time is infinitely more advantageous to Ire- 
land. It will be proved from the documents I 
hold in my hand, as far as relates to the mere in- 
terchange of manufactures, that the manufactures 
exported to Ireland from Great Britain in 1 797 
very little exceeded one million sterling (the arti- 
cles of produce amount to nearly the same sum), 
whilst Great Britain, on the other hand, imported 
from Ireland to the amount of more than three 
millions in the manufacture of linen and linen 
yarn, and between two and three millions in pro- 
visions and cattle, besides corn and other articles 
of produce." Fitzglbbon, Lord Clare, was Pitt's 
most unscrupulous and ablest instrument in car- 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 291 

rying the Union ; yet in 1 798 Lord Clare said : 
*' There is not a nation on the face of the habita- 
ble globe which has advanced in cultivation, in 
agriculture, in manufactures, with the same ra- 
pidity, in the same period, as Ireland," namely, 
between 1 782 and i 798. Lord Grey, then Charles 
Grey, was one of the opponents of the Union. 
Speaking in the year 1 799 of the change in the 
position of Scotland which had been created by 
the Union, he said : " In truth, for a period of 
more than forty years after the (Scotch) Union, 
Scotland exhibited no proofs of increased industry 
and rising wealth," He went on immediately 
afterwards to say : " Till after 1 748 there was no 
"sensible advance of the commerce of Scotland. 
Several of her manufactures were not established 
till sixty years after the Union, and her principal 
branch of manufacture was not set up, I believe, 
till 1781. The abolition of the heritable jurisdic- 
tions was the first great measure that gave an im- 
pulse to the spirit of improvement in Scotland. 
Since that time the prosperity of Scotland has 
been considerable, but certainly not so great as 
that of Ireland has been within the same period." 
Lord Plunket was one of the most staunch and 
eloquent opponents of the Union. To-day his 
grandson is one of its most eager and fanatical 
supporters. Speaking in 1799 he described Ire- 
land as " a little island with a population of 
4,000,000 or 5,000,000 of people, hardy, gallant 



292 GLADSTONE— PARNELL, 

and enthusiastic, possessed of all the means of 
civilization, agriculture and commerce, well pur- 
sued and understood ; a constitution fully recog- 
nized and established ; her revenues, her trade, 
her manufactures thriving beyond the hope or the 
example of any other country of her extent — 
within these few years advancing with a rapidity 
astonishing even to herself; not complaining of 
deficiency even in these respects, but enjoying 
and acknowledging her prosperity. She is called 
on to surrender them all to the control of whom ? 
Is it to a great and powerful continent, to whom 
Nature intended her to be an appendage — to a 
mighty people, totally exceeding her in all calcu- 
lation of territory or population ? No, but to an- 
other happy little island, placed beside her in the 
bosom of the Atlantic, of little more than double 
her territory and population, and possessing re- 
sources not nearly so superior to her wants." 

When the Union was contemplated the bankers 
of Dublin met, and on the i8th of December, 
1798, passed the following resolutions: "Re- 
solved, that since the renunciation of the power 
of Great Britain in 1782 to legislate for Ireland, 
the commerce and prosperity of this country have 
eminently increased ; resolved, that we attribute 
these blessings, under Providence, to the wisdom 
of the Irish Parliament." On the 14th of Janu- 
ary, 1799, the Guild of Merchants met and passed 
tlie following resolution : " That the commerce of 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 293 

Ireland has increased, and her manufactures im- 
proved beyond example since the independence 
of this kingdom was restored by the exertions of 
our countrymen in 1782." 

O'Connell, in a speech which he made in 1843, 
in the corporation of Dublin, was able to quote a 
parliamentary return which gave most interesting 
and instructive information as to the relative in- 
crease in England and Ireland of the consumption 
of such articles of luxury as tea, tobacco, wine, 
sugar and coffee : 

From 1785 to the Union tea increased in Ire- 
land 84 per cent. ; in England, 45 per cent. 

From I 786 to the Union tobacco increased in 
Ireland 100 per cent. ; in England, 64 per cent. 

From 1787 to the Union wine increased in Ire- 
land 74 per cent. ; in England, 22 per cent. 

From 1785 to the Union coffee increased in 
Ireland 57 per cent. ; in England, 53 per cent. 

From 1 784 to the Union sugar increased in 
Ireland 600 per cent. ; in England, 75 per cent. 

These figures have a great significance. They 
clearly prove an advance in the comforts of the 
people. It will be seen that in all these articles 
the increase in the consumption of Ireland was 
proportionately vastly beyond the increase in the 
consumption of England. To make this favora- 
ble comparison between England and Ireland 
more complete, it only is required to append an- 
other table — a table which shows the comparative 



294 GLADSTONE— rARNELL. 

increase of the two countries in the period that 
followed the Union. This return shows the pro- 
portionate increase in the two countries from 
t8oo to 1827 : 

Tea increased in England 25 per cent.; in Ire- 
land, 24 per cent. 

Coffee increased in England 1800 per cent.; in 
Ireland, 400 per cent. 

Sugar increased in England 26 per cent.; in 
Ireland, 1 6 per cent. 

Tobacco increased in England 27 per cent. ; 
decreased in Ireland '^'] per cent. 

Wine increased in England 24 per cent. ; de- 
creased in Ireland 45 per cent. 

Mr. Hutton, a member of a firm of carriage 
builders, which still survives in Dublin, made a 
speech in 18 10 in the Dublin Corporation. He 
had heard the phrase, " The growing prosperity 
of Ireland," and this was his retort : " Some of us 
remember this country as she was before we re- 
covered and brought back our constitution in the 
year 1 782. We are reminded of it by the present 
period. Then, as now, our merchants were with- 
out trade, our shopkeepers without customers, 
our workmen without employment ; then, as now, 
it became the universal feeling that nothing but 
the recovery of our rights could save us. Our 
rights were recovered ; and how soon afterwards, 
indeed as if by magic, plenty smiled on us, and. 
we soon became prosperous and happy." 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 295 

In 1800 there were in — 

Dublin, 90 woollen manufacturers, employing- 
4,918 hands; ^o wool-combers, employing 230 
hands ; 13 carpet-combers, employing 230 hands ; 
2,500 silk-loom weavers. 

In Cork, 1,000 braid weavers; 2,000 worsted 
weavers ; 3,000 hosiers ; 700 wool combers ; 2,000 
cotton weavers ; 600 linen check weavers. 

In Wicklow, 1,000 hand-loom weavers. 

In Kilkenny, 56 blanket manufacturers. 

In Balbriggan, 2,500 calico looms at work. 

To-day scarcely a trace of these industries re- 
mains. 

In 1825 a Select Committee on Dublin Local 
Taxation Q-ave a return to the followino- effect: 
Prior to the Union, 98 Peers and a proportionate 
number of wealthy commoners inhabited the city 
(Dublin). The number of resident Peers at 
present does not exceed 1 2. The effect of the 
Union has been to withdraw from .Dublin many 
of those who were likely to contribute most effec- 
tually to its operation and importance. A house 
which in i 797 paid £6 4.S. od. is row subject to 
^30, whilst the value of property has been re- 
duced 20 per cent. The number of inhabited 
houses has diminished from 15,104 to 14,949. 
The number of insolvent houses was augmented, 
between 1815 and 1822, from 880 to 4,719. In 
I 799 there were only 7 bankrupts in Dublin ; in 
1 8 10 there were 152. 



296 GLADSTONE— rARNELL. 

From these statistics it is proved to demon- 
stration that the Act of Legislative Independence 
enormously increased the prosperity of Ireland ; 
and as this narrative proceeds this brief era of 
prosperity will be made the more brilliant by its 
contrast with the deadly and deepening- decay all 
over Ireland since the loss of its Leoislature. 

The question will at once occur to the mind of 
the American reader why it was that an institution 
that was thus daily proving its fitness for the 
country ever ceased to exist. The explanation is 
easily found in the constitution of the Parliament, 
and partly also in the nature of the settlement 
made in 1 782. First, as to the constitution of the 
Parliament; attention has already been called to 
the character of both Houses of that body. 
Grattan and the other patriot leaders saw the 
immense danger there was to the continuance of 
Ireland's independence if this state of things was 
allowed to continue. Session after session, time 
after time, Grattan and others brought in Bills, 
the object of which was to procure the reform of 
Parliament, both in its own constitution and in 
the electorate. In speech after speech the cor- 
ruptions of the existing system were pointed out ; 
and attention was especially called to the system 
by which at one stroke both the House of Lords 
and the House of Commons were corrupted. 
The House of Lords was corrupted by the admis- 
sion to its ranks of men who had bouoju their 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 297 

peerages, and the House of Commons was at the 
same time corrupted by the sale to the govern- 
ment of the seats which belouQ^ed to the men who 
had bought the peerages. " Will any man," says 
Flood, "say that the Constitution Is perfect when 
he knows that the honor of the peerage may be 
obtained by any ruffian who possesses borough 
interest?" Grattan accuses the Minister of the 
Crown of having " introduced a trade or com- 
merce, or, rather, brokerage of honors, and thus 
establishing in the money arising from that sale a 
fund for corrupting representation." 

But these remonstrances proved in vain ; and 
the government, times out of number, refused to 
make any change of a really practicable character 
in the composition and constitution of either House 
of Parliament, and the House of Commons con- 
tinued to consist for the most part of placemen 
and pensioners and the creatures of the propri- 
etors of rotten boroughs, openly and flagrantly 
ready for sale. 

The attempts to reform the Parliament by the 
admission of Catholics thereto met with an equal 
fate. At one time, however, it seemed as if this 
question were about to be decided. In 1794 
Lord Westmoreland — a Lord Lieutenant who was 
unfavorable to Catholic claims — ^was succeeded by 
Lord Fitzwilllam, who was equally known as a 
strong advocate of those claims. Lord Fltzwil- 
liam was a man of great importance in those days. 



298 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

He was the most prominent member of the Whig 
party. He was a friend of Grattan's, and his 
views on Cathohc emancipation had been over 
and over again pronounced. When he landed in 
1 794 accordingly he was received everywhere 
with enthusiasm. Petitions in favor of Catholic 
emancipation were sent in not merely by the 
Catholics but also by the Protestants. And Lord 
Fitzwilliam himself was able to speak to the King 
of " the universal approbation with which the 
emancipation of the Catholics was received on the 
part of his Protestant subjects." 

Ireland at the moment became as one man, 
religious bigotry was forgotten, loyalty was 
universal. Within the last few weeks the change 
that Lord Fitzwilliam's viceroyalty made was 
brought into relief by a significant episode. 
Lord Aberdeen, a popular London viceroy of the 
Queen, and bearer of another message of peace, 
visited Kenmare, in the month of May, 1886. He 
was received by a popular band of music, which 
played " God save the Queen." It was the first 
time the National Anthem of England had been 
played in this town since 1795 ; and then it had 
been played in honor of a visit from Lord Fitz- 
william. Lord Fitzwilliam was recalled, and the 
hopes of Ireland were blasted. Rebellion suc- 
ceeded to disloyalty. Men who, up to this time, 
had agitated only for simple reform, now thought 
that the rotten borough system would never be 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 299 

willingly abolished by the English authorities ; 
and in abandoning constitutional methods pre- 
pared for an appeal to arms. Before coming, 
however, to this point, there were other charac- 
teristics of the Irish Parliament, which prepared 
the way for its extinction. Among other causes 
which tended to bring about the fall of the 
Irish Legislature was the character of the Ex- 
ecutive. The country was governed by a Lord 
Lieutenant and a Chief Secretary. Both these 
officers were appointed by the English Govern- 
ment, and could not be dismissed by the Irish 
Parliament. There was thus the curious spec- 
tacle of a Parliament with an irresponsible Ex- 
ecutive. Time after time the patriot party at- 
tempted to have this evil remedied, and their 
speeches are full of the most scathing invectives 
against this state of things. " He," said Flood, 
speaking of the Chief Secretary, " may defy the 
House — he who can prorogue or even dissolve 
the Parliament, he, indeed, must be very much 
afraid of their resentment. No, but he may be 
afraid of a mob — if a whole offended, injured 
nation may be called a mob — and then what is 
his recourse? Why, a packet, and then he is 
responsible. Where ? In Dover ! " 

"We have," said Grattan, "no Irish Cabinet. 
Individuals may deprecate, may dissuade, but 
they cannot enforce their principles ; there is no 
embodied authority in Ireland. Again, your 



300 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

Government constantly fluctuates ; your viceroys 
change every day ; men of different parties and 
different principles, faithful to private engage- 
ments but not bound to any uniform public sys- 
tem. Again, you have no decided responsibility 
in Ireland ; the objects of your inquest might not 
be easily found ; in short, you have in this country 
the misfortune of a double administration, a 
double importunity — a fluctuating government, 
and a fugacious responsibility." Some years 
later Mr. Grattan says, "Are the Ministers of 
Ireland fonder of the people of this country than 
the Ministers of the sister country are of Great 
Britain ? Are they not often aliens in affection 
as well as birth, disposed to dispute your rights, 
censure your proceedings, and to boast that you 
cannot punish them, and that, therefore, they do 
not fear you ? Are they not proud to humble 
you and ambitious to corrupt you ? " 

In 1798 the rebellion which had been smoul- 
dering throughout the country at last broke forth. 
Though Catholics took mainly the chief part in 
the insurrection it was originally started by a 
body of Protestants in Belfast, who formed a 
society known as the " United Irishmen." The 
testimony is overwhelming that the United Irish- 
men contemplated at first only constitutional 
methods of action ; but, as they themselves after- 
wards stated, their despair of obtaining reform 
through the continued opposition of the govern- 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 301 

ment to Grattan's proposals drove them into 
rebellion. The rebellion was crushed by the 
most terrible cruelty. One of its worst effects 
was to revive the religious passions between dif- 
ferent sections of Irishmen by which the benefi- 
cent policy of the Irish party and the patriot 
leaders was obliterated. Pitt, and Lord Cas- 
tlereagh, his agent in Ireland, aggravated the 
cruelties by giving every form of encouragement 
to the persons mainly occupied in carrying out 
his cruelties. 

"The Protestants," says Lecky, " passed into 
that condition of terrified ferocity to which ruling 
races are always liable when they find themselves 
a small minority in the midst of a fierce re- 
bellion." * The minds of the people,* wrote Lord 
Cornwallis, after the suppression of the revolt, 
'are now in such a state that nothing but blood 
will satisfy them.' ' Even at my table, where you 
will suppose I do all I can to prevent it, the con- 
versation always turns on hartging, shooting, 
burning and so forth ; and if a priest has been 
put to death the greatest joy is expressed by the 
whole company.' " 

The native Irish, maddened by these cruelties, 
replied with cruelties of great if not equal fe- 
rocity. At last the rebellion of 1798 was put 
down, and the British authorities now thought the 
time had come for proposing the Act of Union. 
On the destruction of the Irish Legislature Pitt 
17 



;^02 <^' 1 'A 1 )ST( )N !•:— I'A RN !■: 1 .1 ,. 

had been resolved from an early date. He iiad 
sent to Ireland as a means of carrying- out this 
policy Lord Castlereagh, an Irishman by birth, 
but English in all his sympathies and aims. This 
remarkable man, who played so sinister a part 
in Irish and afterwards in English history, had 
the qualities exactly suitable for carrying out an 
enterprise of this kind. He had cool courage 
and an utter absence of either shame or of 
scruple. While Lord Cornwallis, the Lord Lieu- 
tenant at the time, spoke, as will be seen, with 
loathing of the work at which he was employed, 
Lord Castlereagh pursued it with perfect equa- 
nimity, and sometimes described it as though he 
gloried in the shame. Preparations went on for 
years to make the Parliament ready for the final 
blow, and the patriots of the time over and over 
again saw how the work of corruption was pro- 
ceeding, and the hour of destruction drawing 
nigh. 

"We are no longer," writes Dr. Browne, one 
of the members for Trinity College, " attacked 
by the stern violence of prerogative, but a new 
and more dangerous foe has arisen — a corrupt 
and all-subduing influence which, with a silent but 
resistless course, has overwhelmed the land and 
borne down every barrier of liberty and virtue." 
"Then," says Sir L. Parsons, "those acquisitions 
in 1782, which the people thought would have 
brought good government, have brought bad, and 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 303 

why? Because it has been the object of the 
EngHsh Ministers ever since to countervail what 
was obtained at that period, and substitute a 
surreptitious and clandestine influence for that 
open power which the English Legislature was 
then obliged to relinquish." It was in the year 
1799 that the Union was proposed for the first 
time. The government put forward every means 
they could employ for the purpose of carrying it. 
But it was, nevertheless, opposed by all the in- 
tellect and all the conscience of Ireland. " It is 
scarcely an exaggeration to say," observes Lecky, 
" that the proposal to make the Union provoked 
the whole of the unbribed intellect of Ireland to 
oppose it." The result was that the bill was re- 
jected by 109 to 104 votes. 

Castlereagh, however, was a man of persistent 
purpose, and he now set himself to work to adopt 
more certain means of carr^^ing out his resolve. 
He employed a mixture of force and fraud. Mar- 
tial law was proclaimed all over the country, and 
wherever there was any attempt to procure an 
open expression of public feeling, violence was 
either threatened or employed against it. The 
people of Dublin had signified their joy at the 
rejection of the government measure, and they 
were attacked without notice by a body of soldiers 
and some people were shot down. A body of 
the gentry had gathered together in Kings 
county for the purpose of declaring their opinions 



304 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

upon the proposed legislation ; they had no sooner 
assembled than a column of troops under Major 
Rogers were seen to be advancing, armed with 
four cannon; by which it was made perfectly 
clear that if the meeting were persevered with the 
building would have been destroyed. Major 
Rogers was remonstrated with ; but his answer 
was, that but for one word from the sheriff he 
might blow them all to atoms. And in several 
other parts of that county — -according to Sir Jonah 
Barrington, a well-known contemporary chron- 
icler — people were restrained from expressing 
their opinions by the dread of grapeshot. Steps 
were taken against all those encouraging public 
opinion against the Union, or who did anything 
to promote the national protest. The Marquis of 
Downshire sent out a circular urging petitions 
against the Union ; and he was dismissed from 
the lord-lieutenancy of his county and his name 
was erased from the list of privy councillors. In 
the same way in the House of Commons all men 
who held office and who refused to vote for the 
destruction of the country's liberties were dis- 
missed. Among the persons who thus gave hon- 
orable testimony to the consistency of their prin- 
ciples was Sir John Parnell, the ancestor of the 
present leader of the Irish people, who had been 
Chancellor of the Exchequer for seventeen years. 
Petitions at the same time were sent over the 
whole country to gather signatures in favor of the 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 305 

Union ; and so eager was Castlereagh for even 
the appearance of popular adhesion to his de- 
mand that felons in jail were offered their pardon 
on condition of attaching their names. Never- 
theless, when the signatures came to be counted 
up, 700,000 protested against the Union ; and 
only 3,000 were found to demand it. 

These were but a small portion of the plans 
adopted to carry the Union on the second at- 
tempt. Castlereagh, having made up his mind 
that corruption was the best of all means for gain- 
ing votes, resorted to this means in the most open 
manner. The seats in the House of Commons, 
owing to the system of bribery, had become as 
valuable as any other article of merchandise, 
and Castlereagh determined to take the same 
view of the question as the owners themselves. 
Accordingly, he announced three plans on the 
part of the government, which together made as 
complete a system of corruption as perhaps ever 
prevailed in the history of any country. 

In brief, then. Lord Castlereagh boldly an- 
nounced his intention to turn the scale by bribes 
to all who would accept them, under the name of 
co77ipe7isation for the loss of patronage and interest. 
He publicly declared, first, that noblemen who re- 
turned Union members to Parliament should be 
paid, in cash, ^15,000 for every member so re- 
turned; secondly, that every member who had 
purchased a seat in Parliament should have his 



:\0{\ 



i;i APsn^Ni' rAKNii i 



[nnrh.iso nu>iu'\- trp.iid to hiin out ol i\\c. ti'tMSiiry 
o( Ircl.uul ; thinll\. th.K .ill uuMubcrs oi' Parlia- 
nuMit. ov (uhris, who \vi'f(> Akw/'s In' tlu' l'nti>i) 
shouKl In- liill\ rriHMnpons(\l lor thcii' Uvsst\s, aiul 
th.it /i.soo.ooo shoiiKl ho ilox'otcil to this siM"- 
vico. in othor worils. all who sluiuKl altcct'uMi- 
.itol\' supptHl his nio.isiirr wtM(\ iiiulrr sonu* 
|M"ot("\t or othor. to sh.iic in this " b.iiik i>t coi- 
tiiplit>ti," 

MiMUtimi^ stMts h.ul Ihhmi vao.itoil hv iiu-n who 
h.ul oht.iiiUHJ l^chhI sniiis loidoiiii; so; ami hN' tho 
linu- th.u r.uii.iiiuMit mot .li^.iin l-oi\l C\istKM\\ioh 
iHniKl U^-1 suio th.it [\\c nunc w.is l.iiil .iiul lli.it it 
iMilv ii\|uircHl tho tuso to burst up the r.irh.inuMi- 

t.lt'N' iHlltUH'. 

.Anolhor ot his int>tlu>ils w.is to hoUl out \.ii;uo 
proniist^s to iho C'.itholiis .uul thrif bishops, tliat 
whon tho Irish r.irlianuMU w.is dostroNOil Irish 
C\\tholir I'l.iiins would obtain a luMiinj; troni tlu^ 
bnpiMM.il r.uii.inuMU : and in this w.iv luuUnibloillv 
a tew ot [\\c Cm\\o\\c l(\ulors wrro lulled into 
sociiritN . 

The Irish r.iili.unont was optM\od j.iniiary 15, 
ivS*.K\ Lord l\istKM-iMoh thouj^ht it !_;ood tactics 
to keep all mention iW" the Union init I'lt" the Kiiis^'s 
sptwh. lie w.uiied nioie cUmiK' to pi'i^speet his 
oroiind : .md he .ilso w.mted the poison ot corrup- 
tie»n to h.ive .1 turther ch.mce ot working;". When 
.m .irnu' is denuTali/ed, suKiU di^siTtions Kwd to 
i;ener.il p.mie. AeciM'dini;!)' Lord C'.isihM-e.ii^h 



TiiK '■;i<i;a'i ifisn STi':r;f;f;r,K. i'/)y 

put up Viscount Loftus to movf: th'; aHflr'ts', in 
reply to thf; speech from the thron^:. I. on! Loftus 
was a man of ^rotesf[ue vacuity of mind, and was 
now known by an uncomp]im':ntary nickname; 
hut i]\<:n: was wisdom nevertheless in puttine^ him 
into a prrjinififfit [>lace. He was tlie son ()i f.h'; 
Marquis of i'Jy, wlio had three rr^ten l^orou^hs, 
and his speech in favor of the jjolicy of the ^gov- 
ernment showed tliat the Marrjuis, his fatlier, 
would receive lii'> l>rihe of /aS>'^^^^- Sucli a 
splendid award U)r {jerfidy was sure to liave its 
^ood effect on weak aufJ wavering minds, \)r. 
lirownr:, one of the membf.rs for the University 
of Huhlin, anr], we re^^ret to say, an American by 
birtli, served a similar purpose. H': had vot':d 
against tlie Union the previous session. He de- 
clared that he had now become more inclined to 
the Union from "intermediate circumstances." 
The intermediate circumstances were that he liad 
been promised the place of Prime Serjeant for his 
vote. The [patriot party insisted on raising the 
question of tlie Union on the address, and a very 
picturesque- incident occurre-d in the course of the 
df.bate. Mr. ''vraltau had retired in disr^^ust and 
despair from Parliament shortly before the rebfd- 
lion broke out ; he was in bad health, anrl had 
sought recovery in change of air and scene. Mis 
friends induced him to accept a seat for tlie 
borough of Wicklow. The return of the writ was 
delayerl as long as possible ; but by a series of 



308 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

Stratagems, Including the employment of a num- 
ber of swift horses, the return reached Dublin at 
5 o'clock in the morning. The proper officer was 
compelled to get out of bed in order to present 
the document to Parliament. The House at that 
moment was in warm debate on the amendment 
denouncingtheproposeddestructionofthe Houses 
of Parliament. A whisper, writes Mitchell, ran 
through every party that Mr. Grattan was elected, 
and would immediately take his seat. The Min- 
isterialists smiled with incredulous derision, and 
the Opposition thought the news too good to be 
true. 

Mr. Egan was speaking strongly against the 
measure, when Mr. George Ponsonby and Mr. 
Arthur Moore (afterwards Judge of the Common 
Pleas) walked out, and immediately returned lead- 
ing, or rather helping, Mr. Grattan, in a state of 
total feebleness and debility. The effect was 
electric. Mr. Grattan's illness and deep chagrin 
had reduced a form, never symmetrical, and a 
visage at all times thin, nearly to the appearance 
of a spectre. As he feebly tottered into the 
House every member simultaneously rose from 
his seat. He moved slowly to the table ; his lan- 
guid countenance seemed to revive as he took 
those oaths that restored him to his pre-eminent 
station ; smiles of inward satisfaction obviously 
illuminated his features, and reanimation and en- 
ergy seemed to kindle by the labor of his mind. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 309 

The House was silent. Mr. Egan did not resume 
his speech. Mr. Grattan, almost breathless, at- 
tempted to rise, but found himself unable at first 
to stand, and asked permission to address the 
House from his seat. Never was a finer illustra- 
tion of the sovereignty of mind over matter. 
Grattan spoke two hours with all his usual vehe- 
mence and fire against the Union, and in favor of 
the amendment of Sir Lawrence Parsons. The 
Treasury Bench was at first disquieted, then be- 
came savage ; and it was resolved to bully or to 
kill Mr. Grattan. 

But these attempts did not succeed. At lo 
o'clock in the morning the division was taken, 
when 96 voted for the amendment of Sir Law- 
rence Parsons, protesting against the Union ; and 
138 against. Thus at the very first fight Castle- 
reagh had a majority of 42. This greatly encour- 
aged the Unionists. But still Castlereagh thought 
that some time would be necessary before the 
House could be made quite ready for the accept- 
ance of his proposal. 

It was not till the 15 th of February that he 
brought the proposed measure before the Parlia- 
ment. -Debates, eloquent and fierce, took place 
on his proposals. Grattan was so grossly in- 
sulted by one of the officials of Castlereagh that 
he declared the government had resolved to 
" pistol him off," and at once accepted a challenge 
and fought with Corry, his assailant. All this 



310 GLADSTONE— PARNELL 

time the secret agents of Castlereagh were busy 
in promising peerages, pensions, and bribes; and 
military were constantly drawn up around the old 
House in College Green to terrorize the people 
against any expression of popular discontent. 

Nobody has more tersely or eloquently de- 
scribed the means by which the Union was passed 
than Mr. Gladstone. Speaking at Liverpool on 
June 29th, 1886, he said: 

"Ah, gentlemen, when I opened this question 
in the House of Commons on the 8th of April I 
said very little about the Act of Union — for two 
reasons : first of all, because looking at the facts, 
whatever that act may have been in its beginning, 
I do not think that it could safely or wisely be 
blotted out of the Statute Book, and for another 
reason, that I did not wish gratuitously to expose 
to the world the shame of my country. But this 
I must tell you, if we are compelled to go into it 
— the position against us, the resolute banding of 
the great and the rich and the noble, and I know 
not who, against the true genuine sense of the 
people, compels us to unveil the truth, and I tell 
you this, that so far as I can judge, and so far as 
my knowledge goes, I grieve to say in the pres- 
ence of distinguished Irishmen that I know of no 
blacker or fouler transaction in the history of man 
than the making of the Union. It is not possible 
to tell you fully, but in a few words I give you 
some idea of what I mean. Fraud is bad, and 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 311 

force — violence as against rights — is bad, but if 
there is one thing more detestable than another, 
it is the careful, artful combination of the two. 
The carrying of the Irish Union was nothing in 
the world but a combination of force and fraud 
applied in the basest manner to the attainment of 
an end which all Ireland — for the exceptions might 
be counted on your fingers — detested, Protestants 
even more than Roman Catholics. In the Irish 
Parliament there were 2,00 seats, and out of these 
there were 116 placemen and pensioners. The 
government of Mr. Pitt rewarded with places 
which did not vacate the seat, as they do in this 
country if I remember aright, those who voted for 
them, and took away the pensions of those who 
were disposed to vote against them. Notwith- 
standing that state of things, in 1 797, in the month 
of June, the proposal of union was rejected in the 
Irish Parliament. The Irish Parliament, in 1795, 
under Lord Fitzwilliam, had been gallantly and 
patriotically exercised in amending the condition 
of the country. The monopolists of the Beres- 
ford and other families made Mr. Pitt recall Lord 
Fitzwilliam, and that moment it was that the rev- 
olutionary action began among the Roman Cath- 
olics of Ireland ; from that moment the word 'sep- 
aration,' never dreamt of before, by degrees 
insinuated itself in their councils ; an uneasy state 
of things prevailed, undoubted disaffection was 
produced, and it could not but be produced by 



312 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

abominable misgovernment. So produced, it was 
the excuse for all that followed. Inside the walls 
of Parliament the terror of withdrawing from Par- 
liament and wholesale bribery in the purchase of 
nomination boroughs were carried on to such an 
extent as to turn the scale. Outside Parliament 
martial law and the severest restrictions prevented 
the people from expressing their views and senti- 
ments on the Union. That the detestable union 
of fraud and force might be consummated the 
bribe was held out to the Roman Catholic bishops 
and clergy, in the hope of at any rate slackening 
their opposition, that if only they would consent 
to the Union it should be followed by full admis- 
sion to civil privileges and by endowments, which 
would at any rate have equalized the monstrous 
anomaly of the existence of the Irish Church. 
That was the state of things by which — by the use 
of all those powers that this great and strong 
country could bring into exercise through its 
command over the executive against the weak- 
ness of Ireland — by that means they got together 
a sufficient number of people— with 1 16 placemen 
and pensioners out of 300 persons, with a large 
number of borough proprietors bought at the cost 
of a million and a half of money — at last they suc- 
ceeded in getting a majority of between 42 and 45 
to pass the Union. I have heard of more bloody 
proceedings — the massacre of St. Bartholomew 
was a more cruel proceeding — but a more base 



I 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 313 

proceeding, a more vile proceeding, is not re- 
corded in my judgment upon the page of history 
than the process by which the Tory government 
of that period brought about the union with Ire- 
land in the teeth and in despite of the protest of 
every Liberal statesman from one end of the 
country to the other." 

When the question came before the English 
Parliament the Union was opposed by Grey, after- 
ward Lord Grey, Sheridan, Lord Holland, and all 
the other great leaders of the Whig party. But 
Pitt succeeded in carrying all his proposals 
through. The question finally came before the 
Irish Parliament in the shape of a bill for the 
Legislative Union. Again Grattan, Plunkett, 
Saurin, afterward Attorney-General under the 
British Crown ; Bushe, afterward a Chief-Justice, 
and all the other men of genius in the Irish Par- 
liament, protested against the destruction of the 
Irish government. Grattan's final speech sounds 
prophetic at the present hour. "The constitu- 
tion," he said, " may for a time be lost, but the 
character of the people cannot be lost. The Min- 
isters of the Crown may perhaps at length find 
out that it is not so easy to put down forever an 
ancient and respectable nation by abilities, how- 
ever great, or by corruption, however irresistible. 
Liberty may repair her golden beams, and with 
redoubled heat animate the country. The cry of 
loyalty will not long continue against the princi- 



314 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

pies of liberty. Loyalty is a noble, a judicious, 
and a capacious principle, but in these countries 
loyalty distinct from liberty is corruption, not loy- 
alty. The cry of the connection will not in the 
end avail against the principles of liberty. Con- 
nection is a wise and a profound policy, but con- 
nection without an Irish Parliament is connection 
without its own principle, without analogy of con- 
dition, without the pride of honor that should 
attend it — is innovation, is peril, is subjugation — 
not connection. . . . Identification is a solid and 
imperial maxim, necessary for the preservation of 
freedom, necessary for that of empire ; but with- 
out union of hearts, with a separate government 
and without a separate Parliament, identification 
is extinction, is dishonor, is conquest — not identi- 
fication. Yet I do not give up my country. I see 
her in a swoon, but she is not dead. Though in 
her tomb she lies helpless and motionless, still 
there is on her lips a spirit of life, and on her 
cheek a glow of beauty : 

" • Thou art not conquered : beauty's ensign yet 
Is crimson in thy lips and in thy cheeks, 
And death's pale flag is not advanced there.' 

While a plank of the vessel stands together, I 
will not leave her. Let the courtier present his 
flimsy sail, and carry the light bark of his faith 
with every new breath of wind; I will remain an- 
chored here with fidelity to the fortunes of my 
country, faithful to her freedom, faithful to her 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 315 

fall." These were the last words of Grattan in 
the Irish Parliament. 

On the 7th of June the Union bill was to be 
read for the third time. Most of the anti-Union- 
ists left the House so as not to be present at the 
destruction of the nation. "The day of extin- 
guishing the liberties of Ireland had now arrived," 
writes Sir Jonah Barrington, a contemporary 
chronicler, " and the sun took his last view of in- 
dependent Ireland ; he rose no more over a proud 
and prosperous nation. She was now condemned 
by the British Minister to renounce her rank 
amongst the states of Europe ; she was sentenced 
to cancel her constitution, to disband her Com- 
mons, and to disfranchise her nobility, to proclaim 
her incapacity, and register her corruption in the 
records of the Empire. The Commons House of 
Parliament on the last evening afforded the most 
melancholy example of a fine, independent peo- 
ple, betrayed, divided, sold, and, as a: State, anni- 
hilated. British clerks and officers were smug- 
gled into her Parliament to vote away the consti- 
tution of a country to which they were strangers, 
and in which they had neither interest nor con- 
nection. They were employed to cancel the 
royal charter of the Irish nation, guaranteed by 
the British government, sanctioned by the British 
Legislature, and unequivocally confirmed by the 
words, the signature, and the great seal of their 
monarch. 



iMwai 



316 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

" The situation of the Speaker on that night was 
of the most distressing nature. A sincere and 
ardent enemy of the measure, he headed its op- 
ponents ; he resisted it with all the power of his 
mind, the resources of his experience, his influence, 
and his eloquence. 

" It was, however, through his voice that it was 
to be proclaimed and consummated. His only 
alternative (resignation) would have been un- 
availing, and could have added nothing to his 
character. His expressive countenance bespoke 
the inquietude of his feeling ; solicitude was per- 
ceptible in every glance, and his embarrassment 
was obvious in every word he uttered. 

'* The galleries were full ; but the change was 
lamentable. They were no longer crowded with 
those who had been accustomed to witness the 
eloquence and to animate the debates of that de- 
voted assembly. A monotonous and melancholy 
murmur ran through the benches ; scarcely a 
word was exchanged amongst the members. 
Nobody seemed at ease ; no cheerfulness was ap- 
parent, and the ordinary business for a short time 
proceeded in the usual manner. 

"At length the expected moment arrived. The 
order of the day — for the third reading of the bill 
for a ' Legislative Union between Great Britain 
and Ireland ' — was moved by Lord Castlereagh. 
Unvaried, tame, cold-blooded — the words seemed 
frozen as they issued from his lips ; and, as if a 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 317 

simple citizen of the world, he seemed to have no 
sensation on the subject. 

" The Speaker, Mr. Foster, who was one of the 
most vehement opponents of the Union from first 
to last, would have risen and left the House with 
his friends, if he could. But this would have 
availed nothing. With grave dignity he presided 
over ' the last agony of the expiring Parliament' 
He held up the bill for a moment in silence, then 
asked the usual question, to which the response, 
'Aye' was languid, but unmistakable. Another 
momentary pause ensued. Again his lips seemed 
to decline their office. At length, with an eye 
averted from the object which he hated, he pro- 
claimed, with a subdued voice, 'The ayes have it' 
For an instant he stood statue-like ; then, indig- 
nantly and in disgust, flung the bill upon the 
table, and sunk into his chair with an exhausted 
spirit." 

The bill passed through the House of Lords in 
spite of protests from some of its ablest members. 
On the 1st of August the royal assent was given, 
and the new act was to take effect from January 
ist, 1801. So ended Ireland's legislative inde- 
pendence. The following pages are chiefly cov- 
ered with the efforts to procure its restoration. 
]8 



CHAPTER VI. 

AFTER THE UNION. 

THE destruction of the Irish Parliament was 
accompanied by several acts which aggra- 
vated the misfortune. With the destruction of 
Parliamentary representation, and, above all, in 
the distribution of debt, Ireland was scandalously 
treated. 

The strength of the Irish representation in the 
British Parliament was settled by Lord Castle- 
reagh in a most arbitrary, not to say contradic- 
tory, manner. He first publicly demonstrated 
that the number of Irish representatives entitled 
to sit in the British Parliament was io8, and sub- 
sequently, for no specified reason, subtracted 
what he no doubt looked upon as the superfluous 
eight and decided the proper number was the 
round loo. He arrived at the conclusion that 
io8 was the proper number thus: In the relative 
population of the two countries, taking it that 
Great Britain had 558, that for the proportionate 
population of Ireland she was entitled to 202 
representatives, for exports 100, for imports 93, 
for revenue 39, making a total of 434, and taking 
318 



^ 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 321 

the mean of these quantities it makes loS^/^. 
But Castlereaeh omitted from his calculations all 
mention of the Irish rental, an admitted factor in 
Irish questions in England. If rental had been 
taken into account, the Irish representation should 
have been i6g}4- In 1821 the question was again 
raised. O'Connell showed that Ireland had seven 
millions to England's twelve millions of popula- 
tion ; and that on this basis of population Ireland 
should have 291 members; and that taking rev- 
enue and population as joint basis, Ireland should 
have 176 members. As a matter of fact, she 
never since the Union had more than 105. 

The scheme by which Ireland was cheated in 
the question of debts is well summarized in the 
following extracts from Mitchell's " History of 
Ireland : " 

"In 181 6 was passed the act for consolidating 
the British and Irish Exchequers^t is the 56th 
George III., cap. 98. It became operative on the 
I St January, 181 7. 

" The meaning of this consolidation was — 
charging Ireland with the whole debt of England, 
pre-union and post-union ; and in like manner 
charofinof Eng^land with the whole Irish debt. 

" Now, the enormous English national debt, 
both before and after the Union, was contracted 
for purposes which Ireland had not only no in- 
terest in promoting, but a direct and vital interest 
in contravening and resisting ; that is, it had been 



322 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

contracted to crush American and French liberty, 
and to destroy those very powers which were the 
natural allies of Ireland. 

" But this is not all. We have next to see the 
proportions which the two debts bore to each 
other. It will be remembered that, by the terms 
of the so-called 'Union,' 

"I. Ireland was to be protected from any liabil- 
ity on account of the British national debt con- 
tracted prior to the Union. 

"II. The separate debt of each country being 
first provided for by a separate charge, Ireland 
was then to contribute two-seventeenths towards 
the joint or common expenditure of the United 
Kingdom for twenty years ; after which her con- 
tribution was to be made proportionate to her 
ability, as ascertained at stated periods of revision 
by certain tests specified in the act. 

" III. Ireland was not only promised that she 
never should have any concern with the then ex- 
isting British debt, but she was also assured that 
her taxation should not be raised to the standard 
of Great Britain until the following conditions 
should occur: 

" I. That the two debts should come to bear to 
each other the proportion of fifteen parts for 
Great Britain to two parts for Ireland ; and, 

" 2. That the respective circumstances of the 
two countries should admit of uniform 
taxation. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 323 

"It must be further borne in mind that, pre- 
vious to the Union, the national debt of Ireland 
was a mere trifle. It had been enormously in- 
creased by charging to Ireland's special account, 
first, the expenses of getting up the rebellion ; 
next, the expenses of suppressing it ; and, lastly, 
the expenses of bribing Irish noble lords and 
gentlemen to sell their country at this Union. 
Thus the Irish debt, which before the Union had 
been less than three millions sterling, was set 
down by the Act of Union at nearly twenty-seven 
millions, 

"On the 20th of June, 1804 (four years after 
the Union had passed), Mr. Foster, Chancellor 
of the Irish Exchequer, observed, that whereas in 
1794 the Irish debt did not exceed two millions 
and a half, it had in 1803 risen to forty-three mil- 
lions ; and that during the current year it was 
increased to nearly fifty-three millions. 

" During the long and costly war against France, 
and the second American war, it happened, by 
some very extraordinary species of book-keeping, 
that while the English debt was not quite doubled, 
the Irish debt was more than quadrupled ; as if 
Ireland had twice the interest which England had 
in forcing the Bourbons back upon France, and 
in destroying the commerce of America. 

"Thus, in 18 1 6, when the Consolidation Act 
was passed, the whole funded debt of Ireland was 
found to be ^130,561,037. By this management 



324 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

the Irish debt, which in 1801 had been to the 
British as one to sixteen and a half, was forced 
up to bear to the British debt the ratio of one 
to seven and a half. This was the proportion re- 
quired by the Act of Union as a condition of sub- 
jecting Ireland to indiscriminate taxation with 
Great Britain — a condition equally impudent and 
iniquitous. Ireland was to be loaded with inor- 
dinate debt ; and then this debt was to be made 
the pretext for raising her taxation to the high 
British standard, and thereby rendering her liable 
to the pre-union debt of Great Britain ! 

** By way of softening down the glaring injustice 
of such a proposition, Lord Castlereagh said that 
the two debts might be brought to bear to each 
other the prescribed proportions, partly by the 
increase of the Irish debt, but partly also by the 
decrease of the British. To which Mr. Foster 
thus answered, on the 15th of March, 1800: 'The 
monstrous absurdity you would force down our 
throats is, that Ireland's increase of poverty, as 
shown by her increase of debt, and England's in- 
crease of wealth, as shown by diminution of debt, 
are to bring them to an equality of condition, so 
as to be able to bear an equality of taxation.' 

" But bad as this was, the former and worse 
alternative was what really befell. The given 
ratio was reached solely by the increase of the 
Irish debt, without any decrease of the British. 

" We take from the excellent pamphlet of Mr 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 325 

O'Neill Daunt a passage presenting a summary 
of the financial dealings of England with Ireland: 

" ' The following facts stand unshaken, and 
should become familiarly known to every man in 
Ireland : 

" ' I. The British debt in 1801 was about sixteen 
and a half times as large as the Irish debt. 

" * 2. It was promised by the authors of the 
Union, and the promise was embodied in the 
seventh Article, that as Ireland had no part in 
contracting that debt, so she should be forever 
preserved from all concern with the payment of 
its principal or interest. 

" ' 3. In order to give effect to this promise, 
Great Britain was to be separately taxed to the 
extent of her separate pre-union debt charge. 
But Great Britain is no^ thus separately taxed ; 
and Ireland is consequently made to contribute 
to the payment of a purely British liability, from 
which she was promised perpetual exemption. 

'"4. Ireland has never received from Great 
Britain one farthing by way of compensation or 
equivalent, for being thus subjected to the pre- 
union British debt. 

" ' 5. By the fifth clause of the seventh Article 
of the Union, Ireland was guaranteed the benefit 
of her own surplus taxes. She has never, dur- 
ing the sixty-four years of Union, received one 
farthing in virtue of that clause. Her taxes, after 
defraying her public domestic expenses, have been 



326 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

uniformly abstracted by England ; and the clause 
that professes to secure to Ireland the use of 
them has been rendered a dead letter by the 
Parliamentary management I have described. 

" ' 6. The amount of Irish taxes annually drawn 
from this kingdom is a very large item in the gen- 
eral pecuniary drain. Mr, Dillon, in his able and 
carefully compiled report to the Dublin Corpora- 
tion, shows that the Irish taxes expended out 
of Ireland in the year i860 amounted to £^,- 
095,453; and that in 1861 they amounted to 

;^3>97o,7i5.'" 

It was not long before the Imperial Parliament 

began to work evil in several departments of 

Irish life. It has been mentioned that Catholic 

emancipation was one of the bribes held out to 

the Irish for their consent to the Union. It was 

represented by Lord Castlereagh and others that 

in the Imperial Parliament the Catholic claims 

would have a far better chance of being fairly 

heard and promptly granted than in a local 

legislature consisting entirely of members of the 

Protestant creed. The very reverse happened. 

Time after time the Catholic rights were brought 

before the Imperial assembly and time after time 

they were rejected with contumely. Nor was 

this all. It has been seen how under the native 

Parliament the different classes of Irishmen were 

rapidly combining in common devotion to their 

:3untry, and how all the old bitterness between 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 327 

Catholic and Protestant was being obliterated. 
One of the very first effects of the Act of Union 
was to renew all these ancient feuds and to give 
them a new force and a new bitterness. The 
Orangemen who had up to the Act of Union been 
among the sturdiest of Irish patriots from this 
time became the most embittered enemies of 
everything Irish. The peers, some of whom had 
obstinately resisted the destruction of Irish lib- 
erties, became from this time forward the vilest 
tools of every act of British tyranny in Ireland. 
The landlords increased their exactions, and the 
chasm which always existed between them and the 
tenantry was widened immeasurably. The Act 
of Union was, in fact, to Ireland an Act of Divi- 
sion. It separated all classes of the people, gave 
them antagonistic interests and aspirations, broke 
up the whole unity of national life. All this too 
it did without bringing real advancement to any 
class. The landlords were tauofht to believe that 
their interests in future were bound up with those 
of England, and, as will be presently seen, the 
Imperial Parliament passed enactment after 
enactment for their special benefit and for the 
special destruction of their tenants. But these 
gifts were fatal. The Irish peers and gentry who 
had hitherto been content to find society, amuse- 
ment and distinction in the capital of their own 
country were now enticed to England ; for with 
the destruction of the Irish Parliament Dublin 



328 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

sank to the level of a provincial town. The Irish 
aristocrats were thus brought into a combination 
with the peers and gentry of a richer country. 
In this way they were tempted into extravagances. 
In this way the foundations were laid for the wide- 
spread disaster and almost universal ruin of the 
landlord class in the present day. 

Mr. Gladstone sums up admirably in the Liver- 
pool speech already quoted the immediate con- 
sequences of the Union : 

" How have we atoned," he asked, " since the 
Union for what we did to bring about the Union ? 
Now, mind, I am making my appeal to the honor 
of Englishmen. I want to show to Englishmen 
who have a sense of honor that they have a debt 
of honor that remains to this hour not fully paid. 
The Union was followed by these six conse- 
quences — firstly, broken promises ; secondly, the 
passing of bad lav/s ; thirdly, the putting down 
of liberty ; fourthly, the withholding from Ireland 
benefits that we took to ourselves ; fifthly, the 
giving to force and to force only what we ought 
to have given to honor and justice ; and, sixthly, 
the removal and postponement of relief to the 
most crying grievances. (Cheers.) I will give 
you the proof in no longer space than that in 
which I have read these words. Broken promises 
— the promises to the Roman Catholics of eman- 
cipation and the promise of endowment. Eman- 
cipation was never given for twenty-nine years. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 329 

It would have been given if the Irish Parliament 
had remained — you would have been given it in 
the time of Lord Fitzwilliam. It was never oriven 
for twenty-nine years after the Union, but no 
endowment. Well, you will say, and I should 
say, ' for that I cannot be sorry.' (Cheers.) I 
cannot wish that the Roman Catholics should 
have received endowment. But on the other 
hand, it was a base thing to break your promises 
to them. Passing bad laws — yes, slow as it was 
to pass good laws, the English Parliament could 
pass bad laws quick enough. In 1815 it passed 
a law most oppressive to the Irish tenant. It was 
the only law relating to the Irish land of any con- 
sequence that ever received serious attention 
until the year 1870. Restraint of liberty. What 
happened after the Union? In 1800 the people 
met largely in DubHn, Almost all the Roman 
Catholics of wealth and influence in the country, 
and a great deal of the Protestant power, too, 
met in Dublin for the purpose of protesting 
against the Union. Not the slightest heed was 
given to their protest. In 1820 there was a 
county meeting of the shire of Dublin for the 
purpose of paying compliments to George IV. 
The people moved a counter-resolution and this 
counter-resolution complained of the Act of 
Union. The sheriff refused to hear them, re- 
fused to put their motion, left the room, and sent 
in. the soldiers to break up a peaceful county 



330 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

meeting. (Shame.) Oh, it is shame, indeed. 
Fourthly, they withheld from Ireland what we 
took ourselves. We took the franchise. The 
franchise in Ireland remained a very restricted 
franchise until last year. In England it had been 
largely extended, as you know, by the Acts of 
1867 and 1868. In England you thoroughly re- 
formed your municipalities, and have true popular 
bodies, but in Ireland 'the number of them was 
cut down to twelve, and after a battle of six years, 
during which Parliament had to spend the chief 
part of its time upon the work, I think about 
twelve municipalities were constituted in Ireland 
with highly restricted powers. Inequality was 
branded upon Ireland at every step. Education 
was established in this country, denominational 
education, right and left, according as the people 
desired it; but in Ireland denominational educa- 
tion was condemned, and until within the last few 
years it was not possible for any Roman Catholic 
to obtain a degree in Ireland if he had received 
his education in a denominational college. 

"Such is the system of inequality under which 
Ireland was governed. We have given only to 
fear what we ought to have given to justice. I 
refer to the Duke of Wellington, who, in 1821, 
himself said with a manly candor, that the fear 
of civil war and nothing else was the motive for, 
I might almost say, for his coercing the House of 
Lords, certainly for bringing the House of Lords, 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 33I 

to vote a change which It was well known that 
the large majority of them utterly detested. Well, 
sixthly, we shamefully postponed the relief of 
crying grievances — yes, we shamefully postponed 
it. In 181 5 we passed an act to make infinitely 
less independent the position of the Irish tenant. 
Not till 1843 did we inquire into his condition. 
Sir Robert Peel has the honor of having ap- 
pointed the Devon Commission — that Devon 
Commission represented that a large number of 
the population of Ireland were submitting with 
exemplary and marvellous patience — these peo- 
ple whom we are told you cannot possibly trust 
— were submitting with marvellous and unintel- 
ligible patience to a lot more bitter and deplora- 
ble than the lot of any people in the civilized world. 
Sir James Graham in the House of Commons ad- 
mitted that the description applied to three and 
a half millions of the people of Ireland, and 
yet with all that we went on certainly doing a 
great deal of good, improving the legislation of 
this country in a wonderful manner, especially by 
the great struggle of Free Trade, but not till 
1870 was the first effort made — seventy years 
after the Union — to administer in any serious de- 
gree to the wants of the Irish tenant, the Irish 
occupier — that means in fact the wants and ne- 
cessities of the mass of the people of Ireland. 
(Cheers.) I say that that is a deplorable narra- 
tive, it is a narrative which cannot be shaken. I 



332 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

have been treading upon ground that our an- 
tagonists carefully avoid. It is idle to say that 
we have done some good to Ireland. Yes, we 
have done some good to Ireland by the Land Act 
of 1870 and 1 88 1, and by the Disestablishment 
of the Irish Church we have done some good to 
Ireland, and by the Enlargement of Maynooth 
grants Sir Robert Peel did good to Ireland. 
Yes, and it is the success of these very acts 
alone that the Paper Unionists can claim as 
showing that we have done good to Ireland. 
These very acts are down to the present day 
denounced by the tory party — the Church Act as 
sacrilege, the Land Act as confiscation. (Cheers.) 
I humbly say it is time that we should bethink 
ourselves of this question of honor and see how 
the matter stands, and set very seriously about 
the duty, the sacred duty, the indispensable and 
overpowering duty of effacing from history, if 
efface them we can, these terrible stains which the 
acts of England have left upon the fame of 
England, and which constitute the debt of honor 
to Ireland that it is high time to consider and to 
pay." 

We have already spoken of the first charge 
of Mr. Gladstone against the Union, that of 
broken promises with reference to Catholic 
emancipation. The second charge is that of 
making bad laws, which for the most part were ap- 
plied to the occupation of land. The new Parlia- 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 333 

ment had scarcely been in existence twenty years 
when already there had been passed a whole 
new code of laws, the main purpose of which 
was to enable landlords to get rid of their ten- 
ants at the very earliest moment possible. In 
1 81 6 an act was passed which gave the landlords 
power they never had before to distrain. Under 
this act the landlords were able to do things that 
must be astonishing to Americans with their 
protection in the homestead laws for a man's 
household and instruments of labor. 

Under the statute referred to the landlord had 
the power to seize growing crops, to keep them 
till reaped, to save and sell them when reaped, 
and to charge upon the tenant the accumulation 
of expenses. Under this act the landlord had 
the power to ruin the tenant by seizing his 
growing crop. Another statute, however, was 
necessary to complete the authority of the land- 
lord and the helplessness of the tenant. Under 
an act passed in 1818 the landlord received the 
power to turn his tenant out of his holding. 

Act followed act then, in quick succession, for 
the purpose of making eviction easy. Under 
one, for instance, if a landlord brought an action 
against a tenant for ejectment, he had the power 
to make the tenant give security for costs. The 
working of this was that he did not have money 
saved sufficient to defend a case. The case was 
adjudicated against him as though he had no de- 



334 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

fence. In other words in the condition in which 
the Irish farmers then were, this act gave the 
landlord a certainty of a verdict in his favor in 
all cases in which he might care to go to law. 
Then another act diminished the time which could 
elapse between the landlord obtaining his verdict 
and the tenant leaving his fields and house. 
Thus at every point the landlord was armed cap- 
a-pie ; the tenant was defenceless. Never in the 
history of mankind was there a code more com- 
plete in the interests of one class and against 
the interests of another. The law was well 
summed up by an Irish judge. "The entire 
landlord and tenant code," said Baron Penne- 
father, "goes to give increased facilities to the 
landlords." It should be remarked, too, that these 
laws were not only different from the laws of all 
other civilized countries in enabling the landlord 
to throw the tenant and his family on the world 
starving and penniless, but they were different 
even from laws passed in the landlords' favor by 
the landlords of England. " The laws," said Mr. 
W. Pickens, in his " Economy of Ireland," " in the 
landlords' favor are already more summary and 
stronger than they are in England, and he is yet 
calling- for additional assistance." 

The tenant then, in Ireland, stood in a unique 
position. Forming as he did more than half 
the population he was left absolutely at the 
mercy of the landlord. Ignorant and timid in 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 335 

most cases he had never g-one more than a few 
miles beyond the limits of his own farm ; he had 
never learned any occupation but that of farming. 
In other countries he could find in a near town a 
factory which opened wide its doors to willing la- 
bor. But, as has been seen, the Union had com- 
pleted the work that the laws of the Imperial 
Parliament had begun. Manufactories were 
in ruins ; the looms were silent ; the artisan 
either fled to other countries or remained in the 
towns to increase the ever-growing army of deso- 
lation. To the peasant, then, eviction meant 
emigration, if by some lucky chance the landlord 
had left him so much money as would pay for 
his passage to America, and in the vast majority 
of cases the tenant had to starve or enter the 
work-house. To be allowed to remain in his 
farm was life ; to be evicted was death. The 
landlord then, by the code of the Imperial Parlia- 
ment, was given power of life or death over the 
tenant. 

It has already been shown how this terrible au- 
thority, for which no body of men would be fitted, 
was especially dangerous in the hands of such a 
body as the Irish landlords had become under the 
Union. Every day they were more and more 
divorced from the people in sympathy and in 
interest, and thus it was that the Irish landlords 
perpetrated upon the Irish tenants cruelties that 
seem doings of human beinofs without hearts to 

19 



336 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

feel, and without consciences to reproach. It has 
been seen through various quotations from the 
days of Spenser down to those of Lord Clare, 
who helped to carry the Union, that the landlords 
had shamefully rack-rented their tenants during 
all their history. The reader will not forget such 
sentences as these. Edmund Spenser said : " The 
landlords there most shamefully rack their ten- 
ants." Dean Swift uses these words : " Rents 
squeezed out of the blood and vitals and clothes 
and dwellings of the tenants, who live worse than 
English beggars," To these may be added two 
quotations, the one from a great American and 
the other from a great English writer. Benjamin 
Franklin said: "The bulk of the people are ten- 
ants, extremely poor, living in the most sordid 
wretchedness, in dirty hovels of mud and straw, 
and clothed only in rags. . . . Had I never been 
in the American colonies, but were to form my 
judgment of civil society by what I have lately 
seen, I should never advise a nation of savages to 
admit of civilization, for I assure you that in the 
possession and enjoyment of the various comforts 
of life, compared to these people, every Indian is 
a gentleman, and the effect of this kind of civiliza- 
tion seems to be the depressing multitudes below 
the savage state, that a few may be raised above 
it." 

Arthur Young wrote : " It must be very ap- 
parent to every traveller through the country that 



hi 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 337 

the laboring poor are treated with harshness, and 
are in all respects so little considered, that their 
want of importance seems a perfect contrast to 
their situation in England. A long series of op- 
pressions, aided by many ill-judged laws, have 
brought landlords into a habit of exerting a very 
lofty superiority, and their vassals into that of an 
almost unlimited submission ; speaking a lan- 
guage that is despised, professing a religion that 
is abhorred, and being disarmed, the poor find 
themselves in many cases slaves even in the 
bosom of written liberty." 

But evil as was the system before the Union, it 
became still worse after the Union, when the 
landlords had no longer the Irish population 
around them to look on in reproach and gradually 
to punish by the use of constitutional weapons. 
One of the main causes of this was the increase 
of absenteeism. On this subject we have abun- 
dant material for forming a judgment. In a well- 
known work — " Dalton's History of the County 
Dublin " — a comparative table is drawn up of the 
annual absentee rental: 1691, ^136,018; 1729, 
;^627,799; 1782, ^2, 223, 222 ; 1783, ;^i, 608,932; 
1804, /3»ooo,ooo; 1830, ;^4,ooo,ooo; 1838, ;^5,- 
000,000. 

Absentee landlords naturally had no feeling 
about their tenants except that of drawing as 
much money from them as they could. And this 
is one of the many reasons why the Irish landlord 



338 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

compares unfavorably with the English landlord. 
In England, with all his faults, the landlord is al- 
ways conscious of the sense of his social obliga- 
tions to his tenantry. Thus in hard times the 
English landlord and the English farmer have 
managed to divide their loss between them, and 
in sickness and misery the children of the English 
farmer or of the English laborer have been vis- 
ited by the Ladies Bountiful of the landlord's 
house. But in Ireland the absentee landlord 
never saw his tenants. To him they were mere 
ciphers, representing so much money for his 
interests and his pleasures. 

Testimony is unanimous as to the terrible state 
of things which was in this manner brought about; 
and the testimony is often strongest from English 
pens. " Landlords in Ireland, among the lesser 
orders, extort exorbitant rents out of the bowels, 
sweat and rags of the poor, and then turn them 
adrift ; they are corrupt magistrates and jobbing 
grand-jurors, oppressing and plundering the mis- 
erable people." — Bryan's View of Ireland. 

Mr. Sadler, M. P. for Newark, an English 
Tory, asked : "Is a system which can only be 
supported by brute force and is kept up by con- 
stant blood-shedding to be perpetuated forever? 
Are we still to garrison a defenceless country in 
behalf of those whose property was, generally 
speaking, originally conferred on the special con- 
dition of residence, but whose desertion occa- 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 339 

sions all the evils under which she has groaned for 
centuries — property so treated that it would not 
be worth a day's purchase were the proprietors 
its sole protectors. But they are aware that their 
absence is balanced by the presence of a body of 
military and police, which enables them to con- 
duct themselves with as little apprehension as re- 
morse. The possessions of the entire empire 
would be lost were such conduct general ; and 
are these so meritorious a class that their utmost 
demands are to be extorted from a distant and 
suffering country and themselves protected in the 
open neglect, or rather audacious outrage of all 
those duties, on the due and reciprocal discharge 
of which the whole frame of the social system is 
founded? If they persist in this course, let them 
do so, but let it be at their own peril." "The 
Irish country gentleman," says the Dublin Pilot o{ 
1833, "is, we are sorry to say, the most incorrigi- 
ble being that infests the face of the globe. In 
the name of law he tramples on justice; boasting 
of superiority of Christian creed, he violates 
Christian charity — is mischievous in the name of 
the Lord. Were the Irish government inclined 
to govern the country with good policy (which, 
bless its heart, it does not), the greatest impedi- 
ment it would find would be in the arrogant, rack- 
renting, spendthrift, poor, proud and profligate 
country gentleman." So speak these writers 
about the Irish landlord. The descriptions of 



340 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

the condition of the tenant are equally emphatic. 
" I have seen," said Beaumont, the well-known 
French publicist, who visited Ireland in 1835 and 
1837, "the Indian in his forest and the negro in 
his chains, and I thought that I beheld the lowest 
term of human misery, but I did not then know 
the lot of Ireland. . . . Irish misery forms a type 
by itself of which there exists nowhere else either 
model or imitation. In seeino- it one recosj-nizes 
that no theoretical limits can be assigned to the 
misfortunes of nations." 

Kohl, a German traveller of note, said : " He had 
pitied the Letts of Livonia for living in huts built 
of unhewn logs of trees with the crevices stopped 
with moss ; but having seen the West of Ireland 
he regarded the Letts, Esthonians and Finlanders 
as living in a state of comparative comfort. He 
doubted whether in the whole world a nation 
could be found subjected to the physical priva- 
tions of the peasantry in some parts of Ireland. 
. . . Nowhere but in Ireland could be found 
human creatures living from year's end to year's 
end on the same root, berry or weed. There 
were animals indeed that did so, but human 
beings nowhere save in Ireland." Sismondi, a 
third foreign authority, declared that the Govern- 
ment should thus address the Irish landlords : 
" You have endangered the whole British empire 
in driving more than a quarter of its people to a 
distress which but for our intervention could only 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 341 

have finished by a rebelHon. You have shaken 
the foundations of society itself by rendering the 
laws of property hateful. . . . We demand that 
upon the rich soil of Ireland, in the midst of all 
its luxuriant vegetation, the Irish peasant shall 
live at least as well as the peasantry of the Prus- 
sian sands, or of the frozen climate of Russia ; 
that he shall not be worse off than they are for 
lodging, clothing, food or firing ; that he shall 
enjoy as much rest and as much security for the 
future as they do. It is only after having insured 
to him his share that we shall recognize your 
right to what remains, and shall trouble you to 
insure it also." 

Even the studied self control and frigidity of 
English Parliamentary reports drawn up by 
English landlords glow with indignation when 
they come to speak of the wrongs of Irish ten- 
ants. The witnesses before them often draw in a 
few lines a picture of the whole condition of 
Ireland. Thus Mr. Nimmo, an eminent engineer, 
speaking before the House of Commons Com- 
mittee, gives the following evidence : " I conceive 
the peasantry of Ireland to be in general in the 
lowest possible state of existence. Their cabins 
are in the most miserable condition, and their 
food potatoes, with water, without even salt. I 
have frequently met persons who begged of me 
on their knees to give them some promise of 
emolovment, that from the credit of that thev 



342 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

might get some means of support. ... It is 
unquestionable that the great cause of this miser- 
able condition and the disturbances is the man- 
agement of land. There is no means of employ- 
ment and no certainty that the peasant has of 
existence for another year, but by getting posses- 
sion of a portion of land on which he can plant 
potatoes. The landlord has, in the eyes of the 
peasant, the right to take from him in a summary 
way everything he has if he is unable to execute 
those covenants into which he has been obliged 
to enter from the dread of starvation. ... I con- 
ceive that there is no check to that power (the 
power possessed by the landlord). It appears to 
me that, under the cover of law, the landlord may 
convert that power to any purpose he pleases. 
The consequence is that when he wishes he can 
extract from the peasant every shilling beyond 
bare existence which can be produced by him 
from the land. The lower order of peasantry 
can thus never acquire anything like property; 
and the landlord at the least reverse of prices has 
in his power to seize and does seize his cow, bed, 
potatoes in ground and everything he has, and 
can dispose of the property at any price." In 
1830 Mr. Doherty, the Irish Solicitor-General, said, 
addressing the House of Commons, "that there 
was then in Ireland the existence of a condition 
of things which the lower animals in England 
would scarcely endure and which, in fact, they did 
not endure." 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 343 

The Committee of 1824, before which Mr. 
Nimmo gave the evidence already quoted, said: 
" The situation of the ejected tenantry, or of those 
who are obliged to give up their small holdings 
in order to promote the consolidation of farms, is 
necessarily most deplorable. It would be impos- 
sible for language to convey an idea of the state 
of distress to which the ejected tenantry have 
been reduced, or of the disease, misery or even 
vice which they have propagated where they 
have settled ; so that not only they who have 
been ejected have been rendered miserable, but 
they have carried with them and propagated that 
misery. They have increased the stock of labor, 
they have rendered the habitations of those who 
have received them more crowded, they have 
given occasion to the dissemination of disease, 
they have been obliged to resort to theft and all 
manner of vice and iniquity to procure subsist- 
ence ; but what is perhaps the most painful of 
all, a vast number of them have perished of 
want." 

By-and-by will be seen the terrible Nemesis 
which came upon the Irish people owing to a 
flagrant violation of all law and all sense in these 
proceedings. This state of affairs, attested to by 
the statements of travellers and the evidences 
given before committees, laid the foundation for 
one of the most wide-spread and horrible famines 
in human history. Meantime, what had the 



344 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

Imperial Parliament been doing? Despite all 
the testimony of travellers, despite all the evi- 
dence of witnesses, in spite of all the reports of 
committees, Parliament refused to do one single 
thing, to pass one single act for the relief of the 
Irish tenant. Mr. Brownlow brought in a Bill in 
1829 for the reclamation of waste lands. It was 
finally referred to a select committee, and there 
it ended. The Bill passed through the House of 
Commons, and the second reading in the House 
of Lords. It was, as has been said, referred to a 
select committee. They reported that they could 
not proceed with it any further at so late a period 
of the session. Henry Grattan in the following 
year called upon the Government to bring in a 
Bill for the improvement of waste lands. Mr. 
Smith O'Brien in the next year, 1831, introduced 
a bill for the aged, helpless and infirm. In 1835 
a land bill was in vain asked for by Mr. Poulett 
Scrope. In the same year Mr. Sharman Craw- 
ford brought in a bill which he reintroduced in the 
year following, but it never got beyond the intro- 
ductory stage. Mr. Lynch a little time after pro- 
posed a bill for the reclamation of wastelands. This 
bill also fell through. An attempt was made in 
1842 to deal with the question of waste lands by 
the Irish Arterial Drainage Act. The Devon 
Commission applied in 1843 and recommended 
legislation in most emphatic terms. Lord Stanley 
brought in a bill in 1845 which was read a second 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 345 

time, referred to a select committee and aban- 
doned. Mr. Crawford reintroduced his bill, but 
was compelled to abandon it. The Earl of 
Lincoln introduced a bill in the next session. The 
bill was destroyed owing to the destruction of the 
ministry. 

All this time the Imperial Parliament had been 
busy with another form of legislation. The Act 
of Union had been passed in spite of the wishes 
of the Irish people. It was a government of 
tyranny and not of Union, and accordingly it pro- 
voked revolts and had to be maintained by the 
same methods as are sacred to despotism through- 
out all the world's history. The landlords, driv- 
ing out a number of starving and desperate 
wretches upon the world without the protection 
of the laws or hope from the legislature, turned 
them into criminals of the most desperate char- 
acter. Wholesale eviction led to the formation 
of secret societies in which the tenant sought to 
inspire in the mind of the landlord that fear of 
wrong-doing and cruelty which under a native 
legislature would have been imposed by the laws 
themselves. Testimony is perfectly unanimous 
on this point, namely, that eviction was the great 
parent of Irish crime. " What," said Judge 
Fletcher, in his charge to the Grand Jury of the 
County of Waterford, in July, 18 14, "is the 
wretched peasant to do? Hunted from the spot 
where he had first drawn his breath, where he had 



346 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

first seen the light of heaven, incapable of pro- 
curing any other means of subsistence, can we be 
surprised that being of unenlightened and unedu- 
cated habits he should rush upon the perpetration 
of crimes followed by the punishment of the rope 
and the gibbet? Nothing remains for them thus 
harassed, thus destitute, but with a strong hand 
to deter the stranger from intruding upon their 
farms, and to extort from the weakness of their 
landlords — from whose gratitude and good feel- 
ing they have failed to win it — a sort of prefer- 
ence for the ancient tenantry." 

Major Warburton, a resident magistrate, in 
giving evidence before a select committee, said : 
"The destitution produced by the turning persons 
out of their land, when they have no other means 
of existence, is a very great source of crime, as 
such a state of things must naturally involve the 
people in criminal endeavors to procure the 
means of maintaining their families." He added 
that " the causes which produce crime and out- 
rage at present are the same causes which for 
many years have produced the same result." 

With these inevitable outbreaks of frenzy, igno- 
rance and despair the Imperial Parliament showed 
itself extraordinarily ready to deal, but always in 
the same senseless and heartless way. Coercion 
Act followed Coercion Act. In 1800, 1801, 1802, 
1803, 1804 and 1805 the Habeas Corpus Act was 
suspended. It was again suspended from 1807 to 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 347 

1810; from 1814 to 1817; from 1822 to 1828; 
from 1829 to 1831; from 1833 to 1835. There 
were in addition several other and special Coer- 
cion Acts. Often there were two Coercion Acts 
enforced in the same year. In the first year of 
the Union five exceptional laws were passed. 
Many of these acts abolished trial by jury, some 
established martial law. Transportation, flog- 
ging, death were the common sentences. 

We will now draw up a list of the Coercion 
Acts, passed during the Act of Union : 

1800 to 1805. Habeas Corpus Suspension. 
Seven Coercion Acts. 

1807. February ist. Coercion Act. Habeas 
Corpus Suspension. August 2d, Insurrection 
Act. 

1808-9. Habeas Corpus Suspension. 

1 8 14 to 18 1 6. Habeas Corpus Suspension. 
Insurrection Act. 

181 7. Habeas Corpus Suspension. One 
Coercion Act. 

1822 to 1830. Habeas Corpus Suspension. 
Two Coercion Acts in 1822, and one in 1823. 

1830. Importation of Arms Act. 

1 83 1. Whiteboy Act. 

1 83 1. Stanley's Arms Act. 

1832. Arms and Gunpowder Act. 
^^33- Suppression of Disturbance. 

1833. Change of Venue Act. 

1834. Disturbances, Amendment, and Con- 
tinuance. 



348 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

1834. Arms and Gunpowder Act. 

1835. Public Peace Act. 

1836. Another Arms Act. 

1838. Another Arms Act. 

1839. Unlawful Oaths Act. 

1840. Another Arms Act. 

1 841. Outrages Act. 

1 841. Another Arms Act. 

1843. Another Arms Act. 

1 848. Act Consolidating all Previous Coercion 
Acts. 

1844. Unlawful Oaths Act. 

1845. Additional Constables near Public 
Works Act. 

1845. Unlawful Oaths Act. 

1846. Constabulary Enlargement. 

1847. Crime and Outrage Act. 

1848. Treason Amendment Act. 
1848. Removal of Arms Act. 

1848. Suspension of Habeas Corpus. 

1848. Another Oaths Act. 

1849. Suspension of Habeas Corpus. 

1850. Crime and Outrage Act. 

1851. Unlawful Oaths Act. 

1853. Crime and Outrage Act. 

1854. Crime and Outrage Act. 

1855. Crime and Outrage Act. 

1856. Peace Preservation Act. 
1858. Peace Preservation Act. 
i860. Peace Preservation Act. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 349 

1862. Peace Preservation Act. 

1862. Unlawful Oaths Act. 

1865. Peace Preservation Act 

1866. Suspension of Habeas Corpus Act. 

1866. Suspension of Habeas Corpus. 

1867. Suspension of Habeas Corpus. 

1868. Suspension of Habeas Corpus. 

1870. Peace Preservation Act. 

1 87 1. Protection of Life and Property. 
1 87 1. Peace Preservation Con. 

1873. Peace Preservation Act. 
1875. Peace Preservation Act. 
1875. Unlawful Oaths Act. 
1 88 1 to 1882. Peace Preservation Act (sus- 
pending Habeas Corpus). 

1 88 1 to 1886. Arms Act. 

1882 to 1885. Crimes Act. 
1886 to 1887. Arms Act. 

Under a system like this it was inevitable that 
there should be discontent ; and, whenever there 
seemed even a chance of success, open rebellion. 
In most of the active insurrections Irish Protes- 
tants took a leading part. Of the heroic men 
who sacrificed their lives to rescue their country 
from the dread evils that the Act of Union was 
inflicting upon it the best remembered is Robert 
Emmet. Emmet was a young man of good family 
and position ; and had inherited from his father 
what was considered a good fortune in those 
days. In conjunction with Thomas Addis Emmet, 



350 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

who Still is remembered as one of New York's 
greatest lawyers — he and several other Protes- 
tants attempted a rebellion ; the rebellion failed, 
and he was hanged in Thomas street, Dublin. 
The spot is still pointed out; is the object of 
reverent attention ; and the memory of Emmet is 
celebrated every year in almost all the important 
cities of America. 

Meantime the condition of the country grew 
worse from day to day. In 1817 there was an 
extensive famine ; and it is recorded that the 
people in several parts of the country were well 
content to live on boiled nettles. In 1822 there 
was an even severer and more extensive famine. 
Sir John Newport, a well-known and prominent 
member of the Imperial Parliament, attempted 
over and over agfain to extort some attention 
from the Legislature to the dreadful state of 
things in Ireland. He pointed out that in one 
parish fifteen had already died of hunger; that 
twenty-eight more were past recovery ; that 1 20 
were down in famine fever. He went on to 
state another fact which throws a lurid light on 
the state to which the Union had reduced the 
Irish people ; in one parish he said the priest had 
given extreme unction — the sacrament which is 
administered in the Catholic Church to those 
only who are in almost certain danger of imme- 
diate death — to every man, woman and child in 
the place; every one of them he expected to 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 351 

die. But the Imperial Parliament, which had 
undertaken the government of Ireland, had no 
remedy to offer for this state of things. A com- 
mittee was appointed ; evidence was taken, some 
specimens of which have already been quoted; 
but the one thing the Legislature had to offer as 
a remedy for the national disease of hunger was 
a small grant of money in the shape of alms. 
The close of the war with Napoleon aggravated 
all the evils from which the Irish farmer was 
suffering, by causing a great depreciation in the 
price of agricultural produce ; and also by the 
removal of the one reason the British authorities 
had for being ordinarily civil to the Irish nation. 
And thus the country went down deeper daily in 
the slough of poverty, despond, despair. Taxes 
were rising, rents increasing. The drain on the 
country through absenteeism in each successive 
year became larger, and entire or partial famine 
followed each other at shorter intervals and 
with intensified suffering. The picture is com- 
pleted by the passage of Coercion laws in the 
abundance already set forth, so as to stifle the 
voice of impatient and savage hunger, and by the 
sanguinary crimes in which tiger passions and 
tiger appetites avenged or sought to protect 
themselves. The assizes rarely ended without 
the hanging of several unhappy peasants. The 
fate of the Irish peasant came to this ; he 
begged the right to eat two meals of potatoes 

20 



352 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

and salt in his own land and out of the earnings 
of his own arms and capital. For potatoes were 
all that the landlords left to the consumption of 
the tenants ; occasionally the peasant was refused 
even this small privilege ; with wife and child was 
put on the roadside to die. Then he went to 
the assassination lodge ; and risked, and perhaps 
lost, life to defend the right to two meals of po- 
tatoes daily. 

This tale of wrong, poverty and hopeless mis- 
ery became so loud and plain that in 1810 the 
Repeal of the Union, the fatal act by which the 
sufferings of the country had been so terribly ag- 
gravated, was demanded at a great meeting in the 
city of Dublin, at which Protestants and Catholics 
joined in equally fervent denunciation of the de- 
struction of the Irish Parliament. But the demand 
fell upon deaf ears, and that policy was plainly 
hopeless. By a number of circumstances not re- 
quiring elaborate description, Catholic Emancipa- 
tion was held to be a more practicable reform, 
and was pushed to the front of all other Irish 
demands. The leader of this grreat movement 
was Daniel O'Connell. O'Connell is one of his- 
tory's most marvellous products. In physique he 
had the stamp of strength and greatness. Tall, 
brawny, muscular, active, he was of dauntless 
courage, of exhaustless industry, of never-sleeping 
energy. His oratory, perhaps, has received more 
unanimous and more lofty eulogy than that of any 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 353 

Other leader in history. He was equally potent 
with a great monster gathering of his own people 
on the Irish hillside and in the House of Com- 
mons, surrounded by foes and compelled to ad- 
here most closely to dry statement of fact. He 
had every quality of the orator — an abounding 
humor, immense powers of pathos, close reason- 
ing, masterly preparation and skilful presentation 
of facts. Laughter and tears followed each other 
in rapid succession when he addressed his own 
people, and when he confronted opponents there 
was no fallacy which he was not able to pierce 
and annihilate. In addition to all this he had 
great organizing genius. Above all things, he 
was rich in the orator's mightiest weapon ; his 
voice was like the sound of some strange music; 
powerful as an organ — as varied in tone as the 
violin ; as artfully modulated as the throat of the 
prima donna. Armed with the single weapon of 
his tongue alone, he achieved some of the great- 
est victories of history. For nearly half a century 
he exercised over a race, mobile, impatient, often 
desperate, a dictatorship as complete as ever Czar 
has been able to wield by the aid of multitudinous 
armies, vast fleets, ubiquitous police. He wrung 
from the greatest and the most hostile Ministers, 
and from the even more violently hostile King of 
England, one of the greatest triumphs of modern 
politics. He was able to raise the income of a 
principality from his self-ordained subjects, and he 



354 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

was able finally to soar away from all rivals as an 
Alpine mountain from the plains below. 

It is not easy to realize at this time of day whai 
Catholic Emancipation meant to Ireland at the 
time when O'Connell took up the question. At 
first sight the question might appear unimportant. 
The demand was for the admission of Catholics to 
a seat in the Imperial Parliament. But behind this 
lay the whole system of gigantic wrong in Ireland. 
The tyranny of the landlords was covered by 
ramparts of official, municipal and social life that 
are scarcely paralleled in history. In a nation 
where of six millions barely a million were Prot- 
estants, all places on the judicial bench, in the 
Civil Service, in the Municipal Councils, in the 
Grand Jury room, in the Army and Navy, were re- 
served for Protestants. A Catholic could not be 
the mayor of a town ; he could not be even the 
member of a scavenging committee ; he could not 
be the High Sheriff that selected the jury ; he 
could not be a member of the jury that was 
selected ; he could not be the judge that decided 
the life or death of Catholics. Protestant ascen- 
dancy followed the Catholic everywhere, even 
into the army, where he had to fight for the King. 
Thus in Enniskillen, a Lieutenant Walsh had the 
coat of a soldier turned because he had gone to 
mass ; in Newry, a more adroit commander de- 
creed that the Catholic soldiers should not be 
allowed out on Sunday until two o'clock — that is 



■*si!'>' 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 355 

to say, until mass was over; Patrick Spence, a 
member of the County Dublin militia, having 
gone to mass, was sentenced to the Black Hole, 
and having written a letter of remonstrance, was 
condemned to nine hundred and ninety lashes 
with the cat-o'-nine-tails — a sentence that had to 
be commuted in face of a violent outburst of 
indignation. 

It was in the North of Ireland, however, that 
Protestant ascendancy developed itself in its most 
aggravated form, for there it was decreed by the 
authorities that killing was no murder on the two 
conditions that the murderer was an Orangeman 
and the murdered a Catholic. On the 23d of 
June, 1808, a party of Catholics who were enjoy- 
ing a rustic evening near Newry, were fired upon 
by eighteen Orangemen. One was killed, several 
were wounded. Not one of the murderous party 
was ever tried, much less convicted. One of the 
party, a short time afterwards, celebrated the 
murder and its impunity by firing shots over the 
house where dwelt the father of the man who had 
been murdered. In the same year the Rev. Mr. 
Duane, the parish priest of Mountrath, was mur- 
dered in the course of one of those Orange cele- 
brations which still yearly throw the Province of 
Ulster into a frenzy of excitement. In the fol- 
lowing year a Catholic named Kavanagh was 
murdered in his own house by the Orangemen, in 
the presence of his wife and four infant children ; 



356 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

and in July of that same year a priest was fired at 
and left for dead ; his chapel was wrecked, and 
every Catholic for miles around was insulted. 
For not one of these crimes was a Protestant 
brought to justice, and even if they had been 
tried, they would have been secure of acquittal 
from judges who were Orangemen ; from High 
Sheriffs who would look after their own interests ; 
from juries into which the hated and despised 
Catholic had not a chance of entrance. And 
thus Orangeism strode in blood over the rest of 
Ireland. 

It was this dreadful system that O'Connell 
sought to put down. At every point he was re- 
sisted by fair means and foul. The judges sought 
to diminish his income by open disfavor or at- 
tempted bullying ; the Orange Municipal Council 
of Dublin sought to assassinate him through the 
bullet of a crack shot ; the lord-lieutenant issued 
prosecution after prosecution ; the Imperial Par- 
liament passed coercion law after coercion law 
against him and his organizations. But O'Con- 
nell beat down every obstacle. His inflexible 
courage was proof against the judges; and when 
it came to browbeating, the Catholic serf was able 
to browbeat his Protestant master ; he met the 
intending assassin, and it was the Orangeman and 
not O'Connell that fell ; he laughed at all the 
prosecutions, for his mighty force as a lawyer 
made him impregnable ; he snapped his fingers 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 357 

at every successive Coercion Act, boasting and 
making good the boast that he could drive a 
coach and six through any act of ParHament that 
had ever been passed. When one association 
was put down he immediately raised another on 
its ruins, following the same tactics with the same 
membership and the same ends. Finally he had 
roused all Ireland so that the slaves of centuries 
began to work and hope and raise their heads 
from the ground; and by 1828 he had brought 
the country to such a pitch of excitement and 
such high wrought resolve, to such iron-clad 
union, that resistance began to stagger, and the 
advent of freedom was in the air. 

It is not uninstructive to mark the attitude of 
the Orangemen when Catholic emancipation was 
near. The idea of a Catholic having any rights 
never entered their heads ; if a Catholic were 
allowed even to vote, then the day of judgment 
must come, and the whole earth be consumed by 
fire from an outraged heaven. Plots were daily 
discovered by which the Papists were planning 
the massacre of all the Protestants of the country; 
O'Connell was denounced in terms of perfectly 
infernal coarseness ; and there were all sorts of 
declarations that the blood of the Papists would 
be shed like water, and that the Orangemen 
would die rather than consent to this compact 
with Satan. 

'And now," writes John Mitchel, himself a 



358 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

Protestant, of the Orangemen of this period, 
" arose the most tremendous clamor of alarmed 
Protestantism that had been heard in the three 
kingdoms since the days of James II. — the last 
king who had ever dreamed of placing Catholics 
and Protestants on something like an approach 
to equality. Multitudinous petitions — not only 
from Irish Protestants but from Scottish presby- 
teries, from English universities, from corpora- 
tions of British towns, from private individuals — 
came pouring into Parliament, praying that the 
great and noble Protestant State of England 
should not be handed over as a prey to the Jesuits, 
the Inquisitors, and the Propaganda. Never was 
such a jumble of various topics, sacred and pro- 
fane, as in those petitions ; vested interests — 
idolatry of the mass — principles of the Hanoverian 
succession — the Inquisition — eternal privileges of 
Protestant tailors or Protestant lightermen — our 
holy religion — French principles — tithes — and the 
beast of the Apocalypse — all were urged with 
vehement eloquence upon the enlightened legis- 
lators of Britain. 

" What may seem strange, one has to admit 
that a greater number of these frightened peti- 
tioners were truly sincere and conscientious. The 
amiable Dr. Jebb, Protestant Bishop of Limerick, 
for example, writes an earnest letter to Sir Robert 
Peel, on the nth of February, 1829 (so soon as 
he saw the course matters were taking), and says 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 359 

to him : ' Infinitely more difficulties and dangers 
will attach to concession than to uncompromising 
resistance. ... In defence of all that is dear to 
British Protestants, I am cheerfully prepared, if 
necessary, as many of my order have formerly 
done, to lay down life itself.' " 

"When Catholic emancipation," writes Mr. J. 
J. Clancy, M. P., in his able pamphlet, 'The 
Orange Bogey,' "came within 'the region of 
practical politics,' the Orangemen raised the most 
tremendous clamor that has been heard in the 
three kingdoms since the days of James II. To 
allow Catholics into Parliament was pronounced 
to be a fatal attack on the ' Constitution of 1 688,' 
and on the birthright of every Protestant, and 
meetings were held in town and country to give 
expression to the determination of the Orange 
party ' never to submit ' to such a measure, under 
any circumstance. The meetings of the ' Bruns- 
wick Clubs,' which were established in Dublin 
and elsewhere, were availed of for the delivery 
of the most bloodthirsty threats in case emancipa- 
tion was carried. Thus, in the Dublin Morning 
Post of nth December, 1828, there is a report 
of a meeting of the Dublin Brunswick Club, at 
which one Judkin Butler closed a fiery speech 
against any concession to the Catholics with the 
following choice quatrain : 

" • Surrender ! — no, we never will 

While Brunswjckers have blood to spill j 



360 GI-ADSTONE— rARNELL. 

Our cause is glorious, and for that we'll fight 
For George's title and for William's right.' *' 

These things are recalled not for the purpose 
of reviving religious bigotry or bitter memories, 
but to show the world the kind of men who are 
now resisting Home Rule. The same men would 
still keep every Catholic in Ireland from the right 
to vote ; and indeed from the right even to de- 
fend his life from the rifles of orthodox Protestant 
warriors. The same men also are uttering direats 
which bear a close resemblance to the threats of 
1828, and will end in the same submission to the 
inevitable when Home Rule becomes an accom- 
plished fact. 

The final event that precipitated Catholic eman- 
cipation was the Clare election. In England 
when a member of Parliament accepts a high 
office he has to vacate his seat, and submit him- 
self once more to his constituency. Mr. Vesey 
Fitzgerald, the member for County Clare, had 
been appointed to the presidency of the Board of 
Trade. He was a popular Irishman, a good land- 
lord, a staunch friend to Catholic claims, and of 
personally estimable character. But some daring 
spirit suggested that the great Agitator himself 
should stand for the vacancy. It was known that, 
as a Catholic, he could not take his seat ; but it 
was assumed that the experiment would bring 
things to a crisis, and compel the wavering gov- 
ernment finally to yield. After a contest of un- 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 361 

exampled excitement, O'Connell was returned. 
The world was astounded ; the Orange party in 
Ireland was driven almost out of its senses, and 
statesmen at last saw that Catholic emancipation 
could no longer be delayed. O'Connell after an 
interval presented himself at the bar of the House 
of Commons. He was asked to take the oath 
which was still in existence. This oath declared 
that the Kingr of Enorland was head of the Church 
and that " the sacrifice of the mass was impious 
and idolatrous." It was an oath which of course 
no Catholic could take, and O'Connell rejected 
it. He was refused admission ; and when finally 
Catholic emancipation was carried, the English 
ministers took a last and a mean revenge by 
tacking on a provision which prevented the act 
from being retrospective, and thereby com- 
pelled O'Connell to be elected over again. 

So ended the first great struggle after the 
Union. Ireland gave herself up to a delirium of 
joy ; O'Connell was idolized ; was given the 
sobriquet of the Liberator, by which he was pop- 
ularly known for the rest of his life ; and it was 
supposed that after the long night, the sun of 
Ireland was at last hio^h in the heavens. In the 
next chapter it will be seen how bitterly these 
hopes were disappointed ; how the real roots of 
Irish maladies were untouched ; how the disease 
went on getting aggravated until it ended in one 
of the most awful tragedies in history. 



CHAPTER VII. 



THE GREAT FAMINE. 



THE dreadful famine of 1845 ^^^ only the 
culmination of evils. The distress of the 
country for many years had been great. It was 
officially reported in 1824 " that a very consider- 
able proportion of the population, variously esti- 
mated at a fourth or a fifth of the whole, is con- 
sidered to be out of employment; that this, 
combined with the consequences of an altered 
system of managing land, produces misery and 
suffering which no language can possibly describe, 
and which it is necessary to witness in order fully 
to estimate. The situation of the ejected ten- 
antry, or of those who are obliged to give up 
their small holdings in order to promote the con- 
solidation of farms, is most deplorable. It would 
be impossible for language to convey an idea of 
the state of distress to which the ejected tenantry 
have been reduced, or of the disease, misery, or 
even vice which they have propagated where 
they have settled ; so that not only they who 
have been ejected have been rendered miserable, 
but they have carried with them and propagated 
362 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 363 

that misery. They have increased the stock of 
labor, they have rendered the habitations of those 
who have received them more crowded, they have 
given occasion to the dissemination of disease, 
they have been obHged to resort to theft and all 
manner of vice and iniquity to procure subsist- 
ence; but what is perhaps the most painful of all, 
a vast number of them have perished of want." 
The Poor Law Inquiry of 1835 reported that 
2,235,000 persons were out of work and in dis- 
tress for thirty weeks in the year. The Devon 
Commission reported that it " would be impossible 
to describe adequately the sufferings and priva- 
tions which the cottiers and laborers and their 
families in most parts of the country endure," 
" their cabins are seldom a protection against the 
weather," *' a bed or a blanket is a rare luxury," 
"in many districts their only food is the potato, 
their only beverage water." " Returning noth- 
ing," Mr. Mill writes of the Irish landlords, " to 
the soil, they consume its whole produce minus 
the potatoes strictly necessary to keep the in- 
habitants from dying of famine." It was this 
state of affairs between the landlord and tenant 
that gave to the potato its fatal importance in the 
economy of Irish life. All the wheat and oats 
which were grown on the land must go to the 
payment of the rent ; and also so much of the 
potato crop as was not required to keep the 
tenant and his family from absolute starvation. 



364 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

The potato was well suited for the position of the 
tenant. It produced a larger amount per acre 
than any other crop ; it suited the soil and the 
climate. The potato meant abundant food or 
starvation, life or wholesale death. It was the 
thin partition between famine and the Irish 
people. 

The plant had its bad qualities as well as its 
good ; it was fickle, perishable, liable to whole- 
sale destruction, and more than once already had 
given proof of its terrible uncertainty. The readi- 
ness of the potato to fail was the main factor in 
Irish life, not merely in the epoch with which we 
are now dealing, but in a period a great deal 
nearer to our own time. 

But in 1845 t^^ fields everywhere waved green 
and flowery, and there was the promise of an 
abundant harvest. There had been whispers of 
the appearance of disease; but it was in coun- 
tries that in those days appeared remote — in 
Belgium or Germany, in Canada or America. In 
the autumn of 1845 ^^ made its appearance for the 
first time in the United Kingdom. It was first 
detected in the Isle of Wight, and in the first week 
of September the greater number of the potatoes 
in the London market were found to be unfit for 
human food. In Ireland the autumnal weather 
was suggestive of some calamity. For weeks the 
air was electrical and disturbed: there was much 
lightning, unaccompanied by thunder. At last 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 365 

traces of the disease began to be discovered. A 
dark spot — such as would come from a drop of 
acid^ — was found in the green leaves ; the disease 
then spread rapidly, and in time there was noth- 
ing in many of the potato-fields but withered 
leaves emitting a putrid stench. 

The disease soon appeared on the coast of 
Wexford, and before many weeks were over re- 
ports of an alarming character began to come 
from the interior. The plague was stealthy and 
swift, and a crop that was sound one day the next 
was rotten. As time passed on the disaster 
spread ; potatoes, healthy when they were dug 
and pitted, were found utterly decayed when the 
pit was opened. All kinds of remedies were pro- 
posed by scientific men — ventilation, new plans 
of pitting and of packing, the separation of the 
sound and unsound parts of the potato. All 
failed ; the blight, like the locust, was victor over 
all obstacles. 

The Dublin Corporation called a public meet- 
ing under the presidency of the Lord Mayor, 
which O'Connell attended. He there drew atten- 
tion to one of the facts which excited the most 
attention, and, afterwards, aroused the fiercest 
anger. This was, that while wholesale starvation 
was impending over the nation every port was 
carrying out its wheat and oats to other lands. 
Side by side with the fields of blighted potatoes 
in 1845 were fields of abundant oats. In one 



366 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

week — according to O'Connell's speech — no less 
than 1 6,000 quarters of oats were exported from 
Ireland to London. O'Connell joined in the pro- 
posal that the export of provisions to foreign 
countries should be immediately prohibited, and 
that at the same time the Corn Laws should be 
suspended, and the Irish ports opened to receive 
provisions. 

In favor of the proposal of closing the ports, 
O'Connell was able to adduce the example of 
Belgium, of Holland, of Russia, and of Turkey 
under analogous circumstances. Testimony is as 
unanimous and proof as clear as to the abund- 
ance of the grain crop as they are to the failure 
of the potato crop. " Every one," said Lord John 
Russell, in 1847, "who travels through Ireland 
observes the large stacks of corn which are the 
produce of the late harvest." John Mitchel 
quotes the case of the captain who saw a vessel 
laden with Irish corn at the port of Rio Janeiro. 

The Irish writers complain because this ex- 
portation was not arrested, and on this they 
founded charo^es against the ministers of the 
period. It is grotesque to charge it as a crime 
against the English people that they ate the food 
which was supplied to them from Ireland : they 
obtained the right to eat the food by having paid 
for it. But the charge is just that it was the 
land legislation which the British Parliament had 
passed that rendered necessary the export of 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 367 

these vast provisions amidst all the stress and 
horrors of famine. There was scarcely a single 
head of all these cattle, there was scarcely a 
sheaf of all this corn, the price of which did not 
go to pay the landlord over whose exorbitance 
and caprice the Legislature had again and again 
refused to place any legislative restraint. The 
Irish land system necessitated the export of food 
from a starving nation. 

The appeals addressed to the Government 
grew in intensity and urgency as the crisis ad- 
vanced, and reports began to reach Dublin 
of very numerous cases of starvation throughout 
the country. These appeals met with dilatory 
answers. The Government were noting all that 
took place ; then they were inquiring ; finally 
they had appointed a scientific commission to in- 
vestiofate the facts of the case ; and so on. 
Meantime the destroying angel was advancing 
with a certain and swift wing. 

At this moment England was in the very 
agony of one of her greatest party struggles. 
The advent of the Irish famine was the last event 
that broke down Peel's faith in protection. 
When these warnings of impending disaster and 
these urgent prayers for relief came from Ire- 
land, Peel was in the unfortunate position of 
being convinced of the danger, and at the same 
time impotent as to the remedies. He was at 
that moment in the midst of his attempts to carry 

21 



368 GLADSrONE— PARNELL. 

over his colleagues to free trade ; and so his 
hands were tied. He did propose that the 
ports should be opened by order in Council, but 
to this proposal he could not get some of his 
colleagues to agree. Then there came a min- 
isterial crisis : Peel resigned ; Lord John Russell 
was unable to form an administration ; and Peel 
again resumed office. The result of these 
various occurrences was that the ports were not 
opened and that Parliament was not summoned ; 
and thus three months — every single minute of 
which involved wholesale life or death — were 
allowed to pass without any effective remedy. 

Under such circumstances, O'Connell and the 
leaders of the National party were justified in 
drawing a contrast between this deadly delay 
and the promptitude that a native Legislature 
would have shown. "If," he exclaimed at the 
Repeal Association, " they ask me what are my 
propositions for relief of the distress, I answer, 
first, Tenant-right. I would propose a law giving 
to every man his own. I would give the land- 
lord his land, and a fair rent for it ; but I would 
give the tenant compensation for every shilling 
he might have laid out on the land in permanent 
improvements. And what next do I propose? 
Repeal of the Union." And then he went on : 
" If we had a Domestic Parliament, would not 
the ports be thrown open — would not the abun- 
dant crops with which Heaven has blessed her be 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 369 

kept for the people of Ireland — and would not 
the Irish Parliament be more active even than 
the Belgian Parliament to provide for the people 
food and employment? " 

The opening hours of the next Parliamentary 
session were sufficient to damp all hopes. On 
means of affording relief the Queen's Speech 
was vague ; but on the question of Coercion it 
spoke in terms of unmistakable plainness. "I 
have observed," said that document, " with deep 
regret, the very frequent instances in which the 
crime of deliberate assassination has been of 
late committed in Ireland. It will be your duty 
to consider whether any measures can be devised 
calculated to give increased protection to life and 
to bring to justice the perpetrators of so dread- 
ful a crime." The characteristic contrast be- 
tween the tender solicitude of the Government 
for the landlords, and its half-hearted regard for 
the tenants — at the moment when of the tenants 
a thousand had died throuofh eviction and hungrer 
for every one of the landlords who had met 
death through assassination — roused the bitterest 
resentment in Ireland. "The only notice," ex- 
claimed the Nation, " vouchsafed to this country 
is a hint that more gaols, more transportation 
and more gibbets might be useful to us. Or, 
possibly, we wrong the Minister ; perhaps when 
her Majesty says that ' protection must be af- 
forded to life,' she means that the people are not 



370 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

to be allowed to die of hunger during the ensu- 
ing summer — or that the lives of tenants are to 
be protected against the extermination of clear- 
ing landlords — and that so ' deliberate assassi- 
nation ' may become less frequent ; — God knows 
what she means." 

The measures for limiting the distress were, 
first, the importation of corn on a lowered duty ; 
and, secondly, the advance of two sums of 50,000/., 
one to the landlords for the drainage of their 
lands, and the other for public works. The 
ridiculous disproportion of these sums to the 
magnitude of the calamity was proved before 
very long; but to all representations the Govern- 
ment replied in the haughtiest spirit of official 
optimism. " Instructions have been given," said 
Sir James Graham, " on the responsibility of the 
Government to meet any emergency." Only one 
good measure was covered by the generous self- 
complacency of this round assertion. Under a 
Treasury minute of December 19, 1845, ^^^ Min- 
istry had instructed Messrs. Baring and Co. to 
purchase 100,000/. worth of Indian corn. This 
they introduced secretly into Ireland, and its dis- 
tribution proved most timely. The Irish mem- 
bers pressed for more definite assurances. But 
their suggestions and Peel's beneficent intentions 
were frustrated by the fatal entanglement of Irish 
sorrows in personal ambitions and partisan war- 
fare. Peel had put forward the Irish famine as 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 371 

the main reason for his change of opinion on the 
Corn Laws ; and the Irish famine became one of 
the great debatable topics between the adherents 
of free trade and of protection. All the organs 
of the landlords in Ireland united in the state- 
ment that the reports of distress were unreal and 
exaggerated. "The potato crop of this year," 
wrote the Eventing Mail (1845), " ^"^"^ exceeded an 
average one;" "the corn of all kinds is so far 
abundant" — which, indeed, was quite true — "the 
apprehensions of a famine are unfounded, and 
are merely made the pretence for withholding 
the payment of rent." Some days after it re- 
peated, " there was a sufficiency, an abundance 
of sound potatoes in the country for the wants of 
the people." "The potato famine in Ireland," 
exclaimed Lord George Bentinck, " was a gross 
delusion ; a more gross delusion had never been 
practised upon any country by any Government." 
"The cry of famine was a mere pretence for a 
party object." " Famine in Ireland," said Lord 
Stanley, " was a vision — a baseless vision." 

Another obstacle to the proper consideration 
of measures to meet the distress was the Coercion 
Bill. It was quite true that there had been 
atrocious murders in Ireland; but the provoca- 
tion to outrage had been terrible. Something 
like an epidemic of homicidal mania had seized 
many of the landlords for wholesale clearances at 
the very moment when the people were con- 



372 GLADSTONE— PARN ELL. 

fronted with universal hunger. Within a few 
days of the discussion on the Coercion Bill a Mr. 
and Mrs. Gerard had turned out in one morning 
the entire population of the village of Ballinglass, 
in the county of Galway — 270 persons in number. 
Neither the old, the young, nor the dying had 
been spared. The roofs had been taken off their 
sixty houses ; and when the villagers took refuge 
under the skeleton walls they were driven thence, 
and the walls were rooted from their foundations. 
Then tliey took shelter in the ditches, where they 
slept for two nights huddled together before fires 
— some of them old men eighty years of age, 
others women with children upon their breasts. 
They were forced from the ditches as from their 
hearths. The fires were quenched, and the out- 
casts were driven away to find a home or a 
grave. 

Under tfie Coercion Bill the Lord Lieutenant 
could proclaim any district, and could order every 
person within It "to be and to remain" within his 
own house from one hour before sunset to one 
hour before sunrise. No person could with 
safety visit a public-house, or a tea- or coffee- 
shop, or the house of a friend. A justice of the 
peace had the power to search for and drag out 
all such persons. Any person outside his own 
house, whether wandering on the highway or in- 
side another house, was liable to be transported 
beyond the seas for seven years. " From four or 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 373 

five o'clock in the afternoon, till past eight on the 
following morning, during the month of Decem- 
ber, no inhabitant of a proclaimed district in 
Ireland was to be allowed to set his foot outside 
the door of his cabin without rendering himself 
liable to this severe punishment. He might not 
even venture from home during that time to visit 
a friend, or to enjoy at any place a few hours of 
harmless recreation. Nay, he dared not even go 
to his work in the morning, or return from his 
work in the evening, so as to gain the advantage 
of the hours of daylight, without rendering him- 
self liable to arrest at the will of a police con- 
stable, and to be kept in confinement, in default 
of proving what no man could prove — that he 
was out with innocent intentions." Such a bill, 
ferocious at any time, was still more ferocious in 
the circumstances of Ireland at that moment. 
The man found outside a house between sunset 
and sunrise was liable to transportation for seven 
years ; and in this year the roads of all Ireland 
were crowded with wanderers, houseless, home- 
less, starving and dying. The bill enabled the 
Lord Lieutenant to infiict taxation on the pro- 
claimed district for additional police, for additional 
magistrates, for compensation to the relations of 
murdered or injured persons ; and it was espe- 
cially enacted that the taxation could be levied 
by distress, and on the occupiers only. The land- 
lords,^ who were the direct authors and instigators 



374 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

of the despair that led to the crimes, were espe- 
cially exempted from all taxation. Every tenant 
was liable ; and so resolute were the Government 
to inflict the tax, that the merciful exemptions by 
the Poor Law were abrogated. And this at the 
moment when a large majority of the inhabitants 
of Ireland had not one meal of potatoes a day ! 

Cruel as was such a bill at such a time it would 
have been passed with a light heart, and by huge 
majorities from all English parties, if the exigencies 
of English party warfare had not at this moment 
produced a curious alliance. The English Whigs 
were anxious to return to office ; the protectionists 
raged with the desire to be avenged on Peel for 
the abandonment of protection ; and the two 
parties saw in a combination against this bill an 
opportunity of attaining their different ends. Lord 
John Russell had voted for the first reading of 
the bill, and Lord George Bentinck, in response 
to some overtures to use it against the ministers, 
had responded with fierce indignation and a 
vehement defence of the measure. But Lord 
John Russell had ambition, and Lord George 
Bentinck had an adviser in Mr. Disraeli; and 
each performed a volte-face as prompt as it was 
shameless. They both condescended, of course, 
to supply most excellent and strictly decorous 
reasons for their change of attitude. Lord John 
Russell announced the discovery — made with the 
suddenness, and, as will be seen by-and-by, lost 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 375 

again with the suddenness of a modern miracle— 
that coercion aggravated, instead of curing the 
evils of Ireland ; and Lord George Bentinck, de- 
claring that the Government had displayed insin- 
cerity in postponing the bill so long, proceeded 
to prove his own sincerity by taking care that it 
should be postponed. It was under conditions 
like this that an Irish Coercion Bill was defeated 
for the first and last time in the whole history of 
the Imperial Parliament. 

In the opinion of the majority of the Irishmen 
who survive from that period the change of 
administration was dearly bought by Ireland, even 
by the defeat of a Coercion Bill. The steps that 
had been taken by Peel were certainly grossly 
insufficient ; but the opinion of posterity is that, 
as a minister. Lord John Russell was much less 
competent to deal with the terrible crisis which 
had now come upon Ireland than Peel would 
have been. 

Nothing brings the position of the Irish tenant 
with more terrible clearness to the mind than 
the fact that the awful warning of 1845 had to 
be unheeded. In 1846 the potato was still 
cherished as the only friend, the single resource 
of the peasant. He stuck, then, to the plant — 
not with the tenacity of despair; not with ob- 
stinacy; but because in his circumstances the 
potato, and the potato alone, offered him hope. 

Contemporary testimony is unanimous in de- 



376 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

scribing the peasants as working at that period 
with a determination to risk all on the one 
cast that exhibited a whole people in a state of 
desperation. "Already feeling the pinch of sore 
distress, if not actual famine, they worked as if 
for dear life ; they begged and borrowed on any 
terms the means whereby to crop the land once 
more. The pawn-offices were choked with the 
humble finery that had shone at the village dance 
or christening feast ; the banks and local money- 
lenders were besieged with appeals for credit. 
Meals were stinted ; backs were bared." The 
spring was unpromising enough. Snow, hail 
and sleet fell in March. But when the summer 
came, it made amends for all this. The weather 
in June was of tropical heat; vegetation sprang 
up with something of tropical rapidity ; and 
everybody anticipated a splendid harvest. To- 
wards the end of June there was a change for 
the worse. So also in July, there was the alter- 
nation of tropical heat and thunder-storm, of 
parching dryness and excessive rain. After this 
there was a continuous downpour of rain. Still 
the crop went on splendidly ; and all over the 
country once again wide fields promised exuber- 
ant abundance. 

In the early days of August symptoms of 
coming disaster were seen. A strange portent 
was seen simultaneously in several parts of Ire- 
land. A fog — which some describe as extremely 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 377 

white and others as yellow — was seen to rise 
from the ground ; the fog was dry, and emitted 
a disagreeable odor. The fog of that night 
bore the blight within its accursed bosom. The 
work of destruction was as swift as it was uni- 
versal. In a single night and throughout the 
whole country the entire crop was destroyed, al- 
most to the last potato. "On the 27th of last 
month" (July), writes Father Mathew, "I passed 
from Cork to Dublin, and this doomed plant 
bloomed in all the luxuriance of an abundant 
harvest. Returning on the 3d instant (August), 
I beheld with sorrow one wide waste of putre- 
fying vegetation." 

Some of the people rushed into the towns, 
others wandered listlessly along the high roads 
in the vague and vain hope that food would some- 
how or other come to their hands. They grasped 
at everything that promised sustenance; they 
plucked turnips from the fields; many were 
glad to live for weeks on a single meal of cab- 
bage a day. In some cases they feasted on the 
dead bodies of horses and asses and dogs ; and 
there is at least one horrible story of a mother 
eating the limbs of her dead child. 

The characteristic merriment of the peasantry 
totally disappeared. People went about, not 
speaking even to beg, with a "stupid, despair- 
ing look ; " children looked " like old men and 
women ; " and even the lower animals seemed to 



378 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

feel the surrounding despair. Parents neglected 
their children, and in a few localities children 
turned out their aged parents. But such cases 
were very rare, and in the most remote parts of 
the country. There are, on the other hand, 
numberless stories of parents willingly dying the 
slow death of starvation to save a small store of 
food for their children. 

The workhouse was then, as now, an object of 
loathing. Within its walls take refuge the vic- 
tims of vice and the outcasts of the towns. En- 
trance into the workhouse was regarded not 
merely as marking social ruin, but moral degra- 
dation. Fathers and mothers died themselves, 
and allowed their children to die along with them 
within their own hovels, rather than seek a refuge 
within those hated walls. But the time came 
when hunger and disease swept away these pre- 
judices, and the people craved admission. Here, 
again, hope was cheated ; the accommodation in 
the workhouses was far below the requirements 
of the people. At Westport 3,000 persons 
sought relief in a single day, when the work- 
house, though built to accommodate 1,000 per- 
sons, was already " crowded far beyond its ca- 
pacity." The streets were crowded with wan- 
derers sauntering to and fro with hopeless air 
and hunger-struck look. Driven from the work- 
houses, they began to die on the roadside, or 
within their own cabins. Corpses lay strewn by 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 379 

the side of once-frequented roads, and at doors 
in the most crowded streets of the towns. Dur- 
ing that period, roads in many places became as 
charnel-houses, and car and coach drivers rarely 
drove anywhere without seeing dead bodies 
strewn alongr the roadside. In the neighbor- 
hood of Clifden one inspector of roads caused no 
less than 140 bodies to be buried which he found 
along the highway. It was a common occurrence 
to find on opening the front door in early morn- 
ing, leaning against it, the corpse of some victim 
who in the night-time had rested in its shelter. 
Men with horse and cart were employed to go 
around each day and gather up the dead. 

The bodies of those who had fallen on the road 
lay for days unburied. Husbands lay for a week 
in the same hovels with the bodies of their un- 
buried wives and children. Often when there 
was a funeral it bore even ghastlier testimony 
to the terror of the time. " In this town," writes 
a correspondent from Skibbereen, "have I wit- 
nessed to-day men, fathers, carrying perhaps their 
only child to its last home, its remains enclosed 
in a few deal boards patched together; I have 
seen them, on this day, in three or four instances, 
carrying those coffins under their arms or upon 
their shoulders, without a single individual in at- 
tendance upon them ; without mourner or cere- 
mony — without wailing or lamentation. The 
people in the street, the laborers congregated 



380 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

in the town, regarded the spectacle without sur- 
prise ; they looked on with indifference, because 
it was of hourly occurrence." 

Meantime, what had Government been doing? 
They had been aggravating nearly all the evils 
that were causing so rich a harvest of suffering 
and death. Donations to the amount of ;^ 100,000 
had been given from the Treasury under Peel in 
aid of subscriptions raised by charitable organiza- 
tions. A more important step was the setting on 
foot of works for the employment of the destitute. 

Lord John Russell suddenly closed the works 
which had been set on foot by Peel. At the time 
there were no less than 97,900 persons employed 
on the relief works ; and the effect of adding this 
vast army of unemployed to the population whose 
condition has just been described can be imag- 
ined. 

Russell's policy was announced on August 17, 
1846; and, well-intentioned as his scheme doubt- 
less was, there was scarcely a sentence in it which 
did not do harm. The Government did not pro- 
pose to interfere with the regular mode by which 
Indian corn and other kinds of grain might be 
brought into Ireland. The Government proposed 
" to leave that trade as much at liberty as pos- 
sible." " They would take care not to interfere 
with the regular operations of merchants for the 
supply to the country or With the retail trade." 
Relief works were to be set on foot by the Board 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 381 

of Works when they had previously been pre- 
sented at presentment sessions. For these works 
the Government were to advance money at the 
rate of 2>/4 per cent., repayable in ten years. In 
the poorer districts the Government were to make 
grants to the extent of ;^50,ooo. 

The evil effects of this legislation were not long 
in showing themselves. The declarations with 
regard to non-intervention with trade were espe- 
cially disastrous. The price of grain at once went 
up, and while the deficiency of food was thus 
enormously increased, speculators were driven to 
frenzy by the prospect of fabulous gains. Wheat 
that had been exported by starving tenants was 
afterwards reimported to Ireland ; sometimes be- 
fore it was finally sold it had crossed the Irish Sea 
four times — delirious speculation offering new 
bids and rushing in insane eagerness in search 
of the daily increasing prices. Stories are still 
told of the ruin that was the Nemesis to some of 
the greedy speculators in a nation's starvation. 
More than one who kept his corn obstinately in 
store while the people around him were dying by 
the thousand, when he at last opened the doors 
found, not his longed-for treasure-house, but an 
accumulation of rotten corn. "A client of mine," 
writes Fitzgibbon, "in the winter of 1846-47 be- 
came the owner of corn cargoes of such number 
and magnitude that if he had accepted the prices 
pressed upon him in April and May, 1847, ^^ 



382 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

would have realized a profit of j£yOjOOO. He 
held for still higher offers, until the market 
turned in June, fell in July, and rapidly tumbled 
as an abundant harvest became manifest. He 
still held, hoping- for a recovery, and in the end 
of October he became a bankrupt." 

The Government did not interfere with the 
regular mode by which Indian corn might be 
brought into Ireland. In Cork alone one firm 
was reported to have cleared ^40,000, and an- 
other ^80,000, from corn speculations. The 
reason for the non-intervention with the supply 
of Indian corn was that the retail trade might 
not be interfered with ; and at this period retail 
shops were so few and far between for the sale 
of corn that the laborer in the public works had 
sometimes to walk twenty or twenty-five miles in 
order to buy a single stone of meal. 

Those were days when free trade was a doc- 
trine professed with all the exaggeration and 
misconception of a new faith. The free trade 
under which Lord John Russell and his subor- 
dinates justified their fatal errors in 1846 and 
1847 was but a ghastly travesty of the teachings 
of sound political economy. Lord John Russell 
and all his subordinates had themselves to make 
this acknowledgment in Parliament. But in the 
end of 1846 they were still unshaken in their mis- 
understanding of the subject, and indeed lectured 
the starving Irish nation with the supremacy of 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 383 

superior beings. The offenslveness of the atti- 
tude and the absurdity of the doctrines were a 
good deal intensified by the fact that, with char- 
acteristic tenderness for Irish feeHng, the preachers 
selected to announce these doctrines were self- 
sufficient English civil servants or Scotchmen 
with more than the usual amount of rancorous 
dogmatism. 

It was decreed that the food which was in the 
food depots that had been established at various 
points in Ireland should not be sold at moderate 
prices — and, in fact, should not be sold at all until 
the autumn. The result was that the people with 
money in their hands died vainly begging food 
from the Government. 

The whole policy was 'to make the famine a 
Government business. It was Government that 
had the carrying out of all the works; the Gov- 
ernment had to be consulted about everything, to 
give their approval to everything. The result 
was that all independent initiative and effort were 
stifled ; local bodies in their paralysis were sent 
from one department of the circumlocution office 
to another ; then, in their despair and distraction, 
did nothing. " Over the whole island," writes 
John Mitchel, "was a scene of confused and 
wasteful attempts at relief — bewildered barony 
sessions striving to understand the voluminous 
directions, schedules and specifications under 
which alone they could vote their own money to 



384 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

relieve the poor at their own doors : but generally 
making mistakes — for the unassisted human facul- 
ties never could comprehend these ten thousand 
books and tons of paper ; insolent commissioners 
and inspectors and clerks snubbing them at every 
turn and ordering them to study the documents; 
efforts on the part of the proprietors to expend 
some of the rates at least on useful works — re- 
claiming land or the like — which efforts were 
always met with flat refusal and a lecture on 
political economy . . . plenty of jobbing and 
peculation all this while." 

But officialism insisted on making the Act still 
more cruel by the regulations under which it was 
to be worked. It was decreed that the work 
done should be task-work. In other words the 
feebler a man was the less help he was entitled 
to receive ; the nearer to starvation the more 
quickly he should be pushed by labor into the 
grave. Hapless wretches, often with wives and 
several children dying of hunger at home — some- 
times with the wife or one of the children already 
a putrid corpse — crawled to their work in the 
morning, there drudged as best they could, and 
at the end of the day often had as their wage the 
sum of fivepence — sometimes it went as low as 
threepence. To earn this sum, too, it often hap- 
pened that the starving man had to walk three, 
four, five, eight Irish miles to, and the same dis- 
tance from, his work. Finally, owing to blunders, 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 385 

he was frequently unable even to get this pittance 
at the end of the week or fortnight ; and then he 
returned to his cabin to die — unless he died on 
the wayside. When he was paid the meal-shop 
was miles away — for meal-shops were only to be 
found at long intervals. Or, if he reached the 
meal-shop, Government measures again raised 
the price of meal beyond the reach of relief work 
wages ; and if he knocked at the doors of the 
Government depots a harsh Scotch voice replied 
that in the name of political economy he should 
die. 

Much of the evil done by the Labor Rate Act 
was brought about by attracting from the cultiva- 
tion of their own fields nearly all the farmers. 
The prospect of immediate wages proved more 
enticing than the uncertainty of a remote and 
fickle harvest; and the universal peculation, com- 
bined with the absolute uselessness of the works 
done, spread a spirit of hideous demoralization. 
The farmers flocked to them solely " because the 
public work was in fact no work, but a farcical ex- 
cuse for getting a day's wages." The laborers, 
having the example of a great public fraud before 
their eyes, are described as defrauding their 
fraudulent employers — quitting agricultural pur- 
suits and crowding the public works, where they 
pretended to be cutting down hills and filling up 
hollows, and with tongue in cheek received half 
wages for doing nothing. 



886 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

The political organs of the period, which were 
no friends of the nation in descriptions of the 
hideous demoralization which these works were 
producing, foretold with a fatal accuracy the 
effects of it all on the following year. "There is 
not a laborer employed in the county except on 
public works," wrote the Dublin Evening Mail, 
"and there is prospect of the lands remaining 
untilled and unsown for the next year." "The 
good intentions of the Government," wrote the 
Cork Constitution, " are frustrated by the worst 
regulations — regulations which, diverting labor 
from its legitimate channels, left the fields without 
hands to prepare them for the harvest." To sum 
up the case the means that were taken to meet 
the famine of 1846 proved the precursors and the 
preparers of the famine of 1847. The records 
of the sufferings from hunger in that year are 
almost more revolting and terrible than those of 
1846. 

Meantime a bitter calamity was added to those 
from which the people were already suffering. 
Pestilence always hovers on the flank of famine, 
and combined with wholesale starvation there 
were numerous other circumstances that rendered 
a plague inevitable — the assemblage of such im- 
mense numbers of people at the public works and 
in the workhouses, the vast number of corpses 
that lay unburied, and finally the consumption of 
unaccustomed food. The plague which fell upon 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 3^7 

Ireland in 1846-47 was of a peculiarly virulent 
kind. 

The name applied to it at the time sufficiently 
signified its origin. It was known as the " road 
fever." Attacking as it did people already weak- 
ened by hunger it was a scourge of merciless 
severity. Unlike famine, too, it struck alike at 
the rich and poor — the well-fed and the hungered. 
Famine killed one or two of a family; the fever 
swept them all away. Food relieved hunger ; 
the fever was past all such surgery. 

The people, worn out by famine, had not the 
physical or mental energy even to move from 
their cabins. The panic which the plague every- 
where created intensified the miseries. The 
annals of the time are full of the kindly, but rude 
attempts of the poor to stand by each other. It 
was a custom of the period to have food left at 
the doors or handed in on shovels or sticks to the 
people inside the cabins ; but very often the 
wretched inmates were entirely deserted. Lying 
beside each other, some living and some dead, 
their passage to the grave was uncheered by one 
act of help, by one word of sympathy. "A terri- 
ble apathy hangs over the poor ; starvation has 
destroyed every generous sympathy ; despair has 
made them hardened and insensible, and they 
sullenly await their doom with indifference and 
without fear. Death is in every hovel ; disease 
and famine, its dread precursors, have fastened 



388 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

on the young and the old, the strong and the 
feeble, the mother and the infant ; whole families 
lie together on the damp floor devoured by fever, 
without a human being to wet their burning lips 
or raise their languid heads ; the husband dies by 
the side of the wife, and she knows not that he is 
beyond the reach of earthly suffering ; the same 
■rag covers the festering remains of mortality and 
the skeleton forms of the living, who are uncon- 
scious of the horrible contiguity ; rats devour the 
corpse, and there is no energy among the living 
to scare them from their horrid banquet ; fathers 
bury their children without a sigh, and cover 
them in shallow graves round which no weeping 
mother, no sympathizing friends are grouped ; 
one scanty funeral is followed by another and 
another. Without food or fuel, bed or bedding, 
whole families are shut up in naked hovels, drop- 
ping one by one into the arms of death." 

Before accommodation for patients "approached 
anything like the necessity of the time, most 
mournful and piteous scenes were presented in 
the vicinity of fever hospitals and workhouses in 
large towns. Day after day numbers of people, 
wasted by famine and consumed by fever, could 
be seen lying on the footpaths and roads waiting 
for the chance of admission ; and when they were 
fortunate enough to be received their places were 
soon filled by other victims!" 

"At the gate leading to the temporary fever 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 389 

hospital, erected near Kilmainham, were men, 
women and children, lying along the pathway and 
in the gutter, awaiting their turn to be admitted. 
Some were stretched at full length, with their 
faces exposed to the full glare of the sun, their 
mouths opened, and their black and parched 
tongues and encrusted teeth visible even from a 
distance. Some women had children at the 
breast who lay beside them in silence and appa- 
rent exhaustion — the fountain of their life being 
dried up ; whilst in the centre of the road stood a 
cart containing a whole family who had been 
smitten down together by the terrible typhus, 
and had been brought there by the charity of a 
neighbor." 

Outside the workhouses similar scenes took 
place. "Those who were not admitted — and 
they were, of course, the great majority — having 
no homes to return to, lay down and died." 

Admission to the fever hospital and to the 
workhouse was but the postponement or often 
the acceleration of death. Owing to the unex- 
pected demands made upon their space, the offi- 
cials of these institutions were utterly unable to 
adopt measures for diminishing the epidemic. 
The crowding rendered it impossible to separate 
even the dead and the dying — there were not 
beds for a tithe of the applicants ; and thus the 
epidemic was spread and intensified. " Inside 
tlic lospital enclosure" (the fever hospital a^ 



390 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

Kilmainham), says a writer, "was a small, open 
shed, in which were thirty-five human beings 
heaped indiscriminately on a little straw thrown 
on the ground. Several had been thus for three 
days, drenched by rain, etc. Some were uncon- 
scious, others dying ; two died during the night." 
" We visited the poorhouse at Glenties " (county 
of Donegal), says Mr. Tuke, ''which is in a 
dreadful state ; the people were, in fact, half 
starved, and only half clothed. They had not 
sufficient food in the house for the day's supply. 
Some were leaving the house, preferring to die 
in their own hovels rather than in the poorhouse. 
Their bedding consisted of dirty straw, in which 
they were laid in rows on the floor, even as many 
as six persons being crowded under one rug. 
The living and the dying were stretched side 
by side beneath the same miserable covering." 
The general effect of all this is summed up thus 
pithily but completely in the report of the Poor 
Law Commissioners for 1846: "In the present 
state of things nearly every person admitted is a 
patient ; separation of the sick, by reason of their 
number, becomes impossible ; disease spreads, 
and by rapid transition the workhouse is changed 
into one large hospital." 

Workhouses and hospitals were not the only 
institutions which were filled. The same thing 
happened to the gaols. The prison came to be 
regarded as a refuge. Only smaller offences 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 391 

were at first committed ; and an epidemic of 
glass-breaking set in. But as times went on, 
and the pressure of distress became greater, 
graver crimes became prevalent. Thus sheep- 
stealing grew to be quite a common offence ; 
and a prisoner's good fortune was supposed to 
be complete if he were sentenced to the once 
loathed punishment of transportation beyond the 
seas. The Irishman was made happy by the fate 
which took him to any land, provided only it was 
not his own. 

But the prisons, without a tithe of the accom- 
modation necessary for the inmates, became nests 
of disease ; and often the offender who hoped for 
the luck of transportation beyond the seas found 
that the sentence of even a week's imprisonment 
proved a sentence of death. 

The total deaths between 1841 and 1851 from 
fever were 222,029. But, allowing for deficient 
returns, 250,000 — a quarter of a million of people 
— perished from fever alone. 

The famine and the fever were naturally accom- 
panied and followed by other maladies which re- 
sult from insufficiency and unsuitability of food. 
The potato blight continued with varying viru- 
lence until 1 85 1, its existence being marked by 
the prevalence in more or less severe epidemics 
of dysentery, which carried off 5,492 persons in 
1846, 25,757 i" 1847, the annual totals swelling, 
until in 1849 ^^"^^ deaths from this disease alone 



392 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

amounted to 29,446 ; cholera, which destroyed 
35,989 Hves in 1848-49 ; small-pox, to which 
38,275 persons fell victims in the decennial pe- 
riod between 1841 and 1851. It should be added 
that as a direct consequence of the famine many 
thousands suffered severely from scurvy. 

It was the terrible mortality of these epidemics, 
and especially of the fever, that led to the most 
sinister invention of the hinged coffin. The 
coffin was made with a movable bottom ; the body 
was placed in it, the bottom unhinged, the body 
was thrown into the grave, and then the coffin 
was sent back to the workhouse to receive an- 
other body. Sometimes scores of corpses passed 
in this way through the same coffin. Justin Mc- 
Carthy, a youth of seventeen, just then started on 
his professional career as a reporter, many times 
saw the hinged coffin in actual use. In Skibber- 
een, which was one of the worst scourged places, 
the hinged coffin was largely used. The traveller 
is to-day pointed out, as historic spots of the town, 
two large pits, in which hundreds of bodies found 
a coffinless grave. 

At last the Ministry were compelled in 1847 to 
change their whole procedure. New legislation 
was introduced ; all the ideas were abandoned to 
which the Government had adhered with an ob- 
stinacy that the deaths of tens of thousands of 
people could not for months change. The Irish 
Relief Act was the official title of the new en.- 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 393 

actment; it was familiarly known as the Soup 
Kitchen Act. Relief committees were to be 
formed ; they were to prepare lists of persons 
who were fit subjects for relief; food was to be 
given — at reasonable prices to some, gratuitously 
to the absolutely destitute. Here was a departure 
with a vengeance from the solid principles of po- 
litical economy that had been preached with such 
unction by the prigs who had undertaken to man- 
age Irish affairs for the Irish people. 

But the good intentions of the Government 
were defeated by blunders. One of the objects 
was to induce the people to till their own fields 
so as to avoid the repetition in 1848 of the loss 
of the harvest that had followed the legislation 
of 1846; and, accordingly, it was ordered that 
the relief works should be gradually dropped, 
and that relief through the soup kitchens should 
take their place. At the end of March the num- 
ber of persons employed was to be reduced by 
twenty per cent, and by May ist the works 
were to be entirely discontinued. It was in- 
tended, too, that by the time the relief works 
came to an end the soup kitchens would be in 
existence. 

The number of people employed on the relief 
works was tripfantic. In the first week of the re- 
lief works the number of persons employed 
was but 20,000; but in March, 1847, had reached 
the enormous number of 734,000. The disar- 



394 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

rangement of a scheme on which so many peo- 
ple depended for food was a project of strange 
rashness, and it was carried out by the officials 
in a manner to aggravate all the evil of the 
original plan. The reduction of twenty per 
cent, was to take place in the aggregate, and not 
in each place — of course, regard should be had 
to the different conditions of each locality: the 
officials lowered the number of persons em- 
ployed in every district with perfect uniformity. 
Then the intention of the Government was that 
the Soup Kitchen Act should be in full working 
order when the relief works came to an end. 
By May ist, when the whole three-quarters of a 
million of people were turned away from work, 
there was not a single relief committee in full 
working order. The result was that there was a 
period during which some of the worst suffer- 
ings of the famine days were repeated. 

But the scheme proved on the whole effective 
and beneficial. Deaths from starvation came to 
an end; fever grew less intense in the hospitals; 
and the fields were fairly tilled. Thus the 
severest verdict on the early incompetence of the 
Government was passed by the results of their 
own later legislation. And, indeed, with an 
appalling candor, the ministers themselves con- 
fessed to their own tragic mistake. 

But all these things came too late, and espe- 
cially too late to retain the population. Emigra- 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 395 

tion received a terrible impetus, and the people 
fled in a frenzy of grief and despair from their 
doomed land. But even in their flight they were 
pursued by the demons they had endeavored to 
leave behind. The brotherhood of humanity, 
powerless to frame just laws and to give national 
rights, asserted itself in disease and death. To 
England, as the nearest refuge, the Irish exiles 
first fled. No less than 180,000 are said to have 
landed in Liverpool between January 15th, and 
May 4th, 1847. I^ Glasgow, between June 15th, 
and August 17th, 26,335 arrived from Ireland. 
At last the Government had to interfere to pro- 
tect the English people from the horrors whi"ch 
the errors and folly of British administration had 
created in Ireland. 

Vast masses tried to make their way to Amer- 
ica. In the year 1845, 74^9^9 persons emigrated 
from Ireland ; in 1847 ^^e number rose to 215,444. 
No means were taken to preserve these poor 
people from the rapacity of ship-owners. The 
landlords, delighted at getting rid of them, made 
bargains for their conveyance wholesale and at 
small prices ; and in those days emigrant-ships 
were under no sanitary restrictions of any effec- 
tiveness. Thus the emigrants, already half- 
starved and fever-stricken, were pushed into 
berths that rivalled the cabins or the fever-sheds. 

When Ireland was beinor scourged with all 
these plagues her political leaders aggravated 



396 GLADSTONE— PARNELL, 

her sufferings by their dissensions. It is not my 
intention at this moment to enter upon a discus- 
sion as to the persons on whom responsibiHty for 
these dissensions must rest. For the Irish peo- 
ple of to-day the moral to be drawn from the 
disaster which these dissensions brought on their 
country is much more important than the discus- 
sion of the question of which side was most to 
blame. 

The hideous magnitude of the sufferings of 
Ireland at that moment was bound to increase 
the tendency to discord. The young and strong 
and brave can never reconcile themselves to the 
gospel that there is such a thing in this world as 
inevitable evil. The sight of so many thousands 
of people perishing miserably naturally sug- 
gested a frenzied temper, and the extreme course 
that such a temper begets. Among the young 
men, therefore, who gathered round the leaders 
of the Nation newspaper, there was a constant 
feeling that enough was not being done to save 
the people. O'Connell was now approaching 
the close of a long and busy life. One of the 
great causes of the split between Young and 
Old Ireland was in reference to what are called 
the " peace resolutions." Some of the utterances 
of the Young Irelanders had suggested the em- 
ployment of physical force under certain circum- 
stances ; and O'Connell insisted upon the Repeal 
Association solemnly renewing its adhesion to 




DANIEL O'CONNELL, THE GREAT IRISH AGITATOR. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 399 

the resolutions. These resohitions, passed at its 
formation, laid down the doctrine that no po- 
litical reform was worth purchasing by the shed- 
ding of even one drop of blood. It is hard to 
believe that O'Connell ever did accept in its en- 
tirety the doctrine that physical force was not a 
justifiable expedient under any imaginable cir- 
cumstances. O'Connell probably meant to say, 
that Ireland was so weak at that time when com- 
pared to England, that an exercise of physical 
force could have no possible chance of success, 
and that it was as well to reconcile the people to 
their impotence by raising it to the dignity of a 
great moral principle. From this time forward 
there were rival organizations, rival leaders and 
rival policies in the National party. 

O'Connell did not survive to see the complete 
wreck of the vast organization which he had held 
together for so long a period. Rarely has a 
great, and on the whole successful, career ended 
in gloom so unbroken. He worked on as ener- 
getically as ever, for he was a man whose indus- 
try never paused. But both he and his policy 
had lost their prestige. The young and ardent 
began to question his power, and still more to 
doubt his policy. Then came 1846 and 1847, 
with the people whom he had pledged himself to 
bring into the promised land of self-government 
and prosperity dying of hunger and disease, 
fleeing as from an accursed spot, or bound to 



400 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

the fiery wheel of oppression more securely than 
ever. On April 3d, 1846, he delivered a length- 
ened speech to the House of Commons, of 
which an entirely inaccurate description is given 
in Lord Beaconsfield's "Life of Lord George 
Bentinck." 

However much the voice and other physical 
attributes of O'Connell may have appeared to 
have decayed, this speech, in its selection of evi- 
dence, and in its arrangement of facts, and its 
presentation of the whole case against the land 
system of Ireland, may be read even to-day as 
the completest and most convincing speech of 
the times on the question. He spoke in the 
House of Commons for the last time in Feb- 
ruary, 1847, ^^^ ^^^ "^^t ^^y ^^s seriously ill. 
He went abroad, and was everywhere met by 
demonstrations of respect and affection. But his 
heart was broken. A gloom had settled over 
him which nothing could shake off. He died at 
Genoa, on May 15th, 1847. ^^^ last will was 
that his heart should be sent to Rome, and his 
body to Ireland. He lies in Glasnevin Cemetery. 
The removal of his imposing personality from 
Irish politics aggravated the dissensions between 
Old and Young Ireland. 

The evils of the country grew daily worse ; 
hope from Parliament died in face of a failure so 
colossal as that of O'Connell ; and some of the 
Young Irelanders, seized with despair, resolved to 
try physical force. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 401 

The apostle of this new gospel was John 
Mitchel — one of the strangest and strongest 
figures of Irish political struggles. He was the 
son of an Ulster Unitarian clergyman ; and he 
was one of the early contributors to the Nation, 
and started a paper on his own account. In this 
paper insurrection was openly preached; and es- 
pecially insurrection against the land system. 
The people were asked not to die themselves, 
nor let their wives and children die, while their 
fields were covered with food which had been pro- 
duced by the sweat of their brows and by their 
own hands. It was pointed out that the reason 
why all this food was sent from a starving to a 
prosperous nation was that the rent of the land 
lord might be paid, and that the rent should 
therefore be attacked. 

The Ministry, in order to cope with the results 
of a period of universal hunger and disease, suc- 
ceeded in having a whole code of coercion laws 
passed. The Cabinet had changed its political 
complexion. Lord John Russell had been the 
leader of the Whigs in the triumphant attack on 
coercion ; and now transformed from the leader 
of Opposition to the head of the Government, 
brought in coercion bills himself 

It has been already told how, when O'Connell 
was tried and convicted by packed juries and par- 
tisan judges, the Whig leaders in the House of 
Commons denounced jury-packing as the vilest 

23 



402 GLADSTONE— PARN ELL. 

and meanest of expedients to crush political op 
ponents ; within a year or so of these declarations 
the Whigs were packingr juries before partisan 
judges, and were getting verdicts to order which 
sent political opponents beyond the seas. There 
was in these years in Dublin a sheet called the 
World, a blackmailing organ. Its editor — a man 
named Birch — had been tried and convicted of 
attempting to obtain hush-money from helpless 
men and women whom chance had placed in his 
power. Lord Clarendon, the Whig Lord Lieu- 
tenant, was forced to confess in a trial in public 
court some years afterwards, that he had given 
Birch between ;!{^'2,ooo and ;^3,ooo to turn his 
slanderous pen against the leaders of the Young 
Ireland party. 

Mitchel was brought to trial ; Lord John Rus- 
sell pledged himself that it should be a fair trial. 
He had written, he declared, to Lord Clarendon 
that he trusted there would not arise any charge 
of any kind of unfairness as to the composition 
of the juries, as, for his own part, "he would 
rather see those parties acquitted than that there 
should be any such unfairness." Yet was the 
pledge most flagrantly broken ; and the packing 
of the jury of John Mitchel under the premier- 
ship of Lord John Russell was as open, as relent- 
less, as shameless, as the packing of the jury of 
O'Connell under the premiership of Sir Robert 
Peel. The Crown challenged thirty-nine of the 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 403 

jurors, with the final result that there was not a 
single Catholic on the jury, and that the Prot- 
estants were of the Orange class who would be 
quite willing to hang Mitchel without the for- 
mality of trial. 

Mitchel was sentenced to fourteen years' 
transportation ; in a few hours after the sentence 
he was on the way already to the land to which he 
was now exiled. His own expectation was that 
the Government would never be allowed to con- 
quer him without a struggle, and that his sen- 
tence would be the longed-for and the necessary 
sio^nal for the risingr. But it was deemed wisest 
by the other leaders of the Young Ireland party 
that the attempt at insurrection should be post- 
poned. By successive steps, however, these men 
were in turn driven to the conviction that an 
attempt at insurrection should be made. 

Mr. Smith O'Brien was the member of an aris- 
tocratic family. His brother afterwards became 
Lord Inchiquin, and was the nearest male relative 
to the Marquis of Thomond. For years he had 
been honestly convinced that the Liberal party 
would remedy all the wrongs of the Irish people. 
But as time went on, and all these evils seemed 
to become aggravated instead of relieved, he was 
driven slowly and unwillingly into the belief that 
the legislative Union was the real source of all 
the evils of his country. By successive steps he 
was driven into the ranks of Young Ireland, and 



404 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

by degrees Into revolution. When he, Mr. John 
Blake Dillon, Mr. D'Arcy M'Gee, and Mr. (now 
Sir) Charles Gavan Duffy were finally forced into 
the attempt to create an insurrection, they had a 
strong feeling that they were called upon to make 
it rather through the calls of honor than the 
chances of success. The attempt at all events 
proved a disastrous failure. After an attack on a 
police barrack at Ballingarry, the small force 
which O'Brien had been able to call and keep to- 
gether was scattered. He and the greater num- 
ber of the leaders were arrested after a few days, 
and were put on their trial. The juries were 
packed as before, the judges were partisans, and 
O'Brien and the rest were convicted, were sen- 
tenced to death, and, this sentence being com- 
muted, were transported. This was the end of 
the Young Ireland party. The party of O'Con- 
nell did not survive much longer. In 1847 there 
was a general election. The account of that elec- 
tion is one of the most depressing and most in- 
structive chapters in Irish history, and makes sev- 
eral years of Irish history intelligible. 

The idea of the Young Irelanders was an inde- 
pendent Irish party. But O'Connell's heirs, as he 
himself, taught a very different creed. It was 
O'Connell's persistent idea that his supporters 
were justified in taking offices under the Crown. 
It is easy to understand his reasons for adopting 
such a policy. When O'Connell started his po- 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 405 

litical career, every post of power in Ireland was 
held by the enemies of the popular cause. All 
men in any public position, great or small, were 
Protestants, and most of them Conservatives. 
Ireland had all the forms Avhich in England are 
the guarantees of freemen and freedom, but these 
forms became the bulwarks and instruments of 
tyranny. It was in vain that there were in Ire- 
land judges who had the same independence of 
the Crown as their brethren in England, if, from 
political partisanship, they could be relied upon to 
do the behests of the Government, Trial by jury 
was a " mockery, a delusion, and a snare," if it 
meant trial by a carefully selected number of 
one's bitterest political and religious opponents. 
And no laws could establish political or social or 
religious equality when their administration was 
left to the unchecked caprice of political partisans. 
O'Connell thought, therefore, that one of the 
first necessities of Irish progress was that the 
judiciary and the other official bodies of the 
country should be manned by men belonging to 
the same faith and sympathizing with the political 
sentiments of the majority of their countrymen. 
O'Connell was the leader of a democratic move- 
ment with no revenue save such as the voluntary 
subscriptions of his followers supplied. It was 
not an unwelcome relief to his cause if occasion- 
ally he was able to transform the pensioners on 
his funds into pensioners on the coffers of the 



406 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

State. At this period the Irish leader had a 
much more circumscribed class from which to 
draw his Parliamentary supporters than at the 
present day. There were large classes of the 
population who, while they had the property 
qualification, were in other respects entirely un- 
suited for the position of members of a popular 
party. The landlords were almost to a man on 
the side of existing abuses, and the greater num- 
ber of the members of this body whom O'Connell 
was able to recruit to his ranks were usually men 
of extravagant habits and of vicious lives, and 
politics was the last desperate card with which 
their fortunes were to be marred or mended. It 
was all very well for half a million of people to 
meet O'Connell at the monster meetings, and to 
show that he commanded, as never did popular 
leader before, the affections, the opinions, and the 
riofht arms of a unanimous nation. But when it 
came to the time for obtaining a Parliamentary 
supporter for his struggle with English Ministries, 
it was not upon the voice of the people that the 
decision rested. He could carry most of the 
counties, even though support of him meant sen- 
tences of eviction and of death, or of exile to his 
adherents. In the boroughs it was half a dozen 
shopkeepers, face to face with always impending 
bankruptcy, who had the decision of an election. 
Finally, O'Connell, in this matter of place-hunting, 
as in so many others, was led astray by reliance 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 407 

upon the English Whig party. The result was 
the creation in Ireland of a school of politicians 
which has been at once her dishonor and her 
bane. This was the race of Catholic place- 
hunters. It will be found that in exact proportion 
to their success and number were the degfradation 
and the deepening misery of their country ; that 
for years the struggle for Irish prosperity and 
self-government was impeded mainly through 
them ; and that hope for the final overthrow of 
the whole vast structure of wrong in Ireland 
showed some chance of realization for the first 
time when they were expelled forever from politi- 
cal life. 

A profligate landlord, or an aspiring but brief- 
less barrister, was elected for an Irish constituency 
as a follower of the popular leader of the day and 
as the mouthpiece of his principles. He soon 
gave it to be understood by the distributors of 
State patronage that he was open to a bargain. 
The time came when in the party divisions his 
vote was of consequence, and the bargain was 
then struck. 

The wretched following which in the course 
of his long struggle O'Connell had gathered 
about him gave that apparent uncleanness to his 
proceedings which excited the just indignation of 
young and ardent and high-minded men and 
caused the demand for an independent Irish 
party, with no mercy to place-hunters. Richard 



408 GLADSTONE— PAR NELL. 

Lalor Shell, one of the most eloquent colleagues 
of O'Connell in the old struggle, had kept out of 
all popular movements — some said because the 
despotic will of the great tribune made life intol- 
erable to any but slaves — and had in time sunk to 
the level of a Whig office-holder. In 1846 he 
stood for Dungarvan, and the Young Irelanders 
demanded that he should be opposed by a man 
who was not in favor with the Government. 
O'Connell stood by his old associate, and Shiel 
was elected. 

The struggle which had raged in the days of 
O'Connell burst out with even greater fury when 
he was dead. The Young Irelanders proposed 
that no man should be elected who did not 
pledge himself to take no office under the 
Crown. And if such a pledge were ever neces- 
sary or justifiable it was at that moment. The 
Irish nation was being murdered ; and the demand 
for relief should come, not from beggars seeking 
the pence of the Treasury, but from men caring 
only for the cure of the awful suffering of their 
country. 

But the Repeal Association refused to accede 
to any such pledge ; and raised those false side- 
issues which are the favorite resort of unscrupulous 
traffickers. A favorite expedient was to whisper 
doubts of the religious orthodoxy of the Young 
Irelanders ; and their proposals being first de- 
scribed as revolutionary, dread warnings were by 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 409 

an easy transition drawn from the sanguinary 
acts of the revolutionaries of France. Young 
Irelanders were described as having " murdered 
the Liberator." The disappearance of O'Connell, 
especially in circumstances of such tragic and 
pitiful gloom, had produced on the whole Irish 
people an impression as if the sun or moon had 
suddenly dropped out of the heavens. In such a 
condition of the popular mind the Young 
Irelanders were everywhere denounced ; in many 
places they were set upon by mobs, and were in 
danger of their lives. 

The public feeling against them threw great 
difficulties in the way of the policy which they 
recommended ; and that policy did not receive 
anything like a fair hearing. Their candidates 
were everywhere defeated, and in their stead 
were chosen men who were openly for sale. 
Thus, instead of seventy independent and honest 
Irish representatives, there was returned a motley 
gang of as disreputable and needy adventurers 
as ever trafficked in the blood and tears of a 
nation. Of the entire number no less than twenty 
afterwards accepted places for themselves, and 
twenty more were continually pestering the Gov- 
ernment Whips for places for their dependents. 

Then the Repeal party broke up, and Ireland 
was left without an advocate in Parliament. The 
ruin and helplessness of the country was now 
complete. Insurrection had been tried and had 



410 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

failed; constitutional agitation had produced a 
gang of scoundrels who were ready to sell them- 
selves to the highest bidder. Ireland, starving, 
plague-stricken, disarmed, unrepresented, lay at 
the mercy of the British Government and of the 
Irish landlords. It will not be uninstructive to 
see what use the two classes made of their 
omnipotence over the country which death, 
hunger and plague, abortive rebellion and 
political treachery had given over to their hands. 

To anybody who desires a picture of what Irish 
landlordism in the days of the famine really meant 
the perusal of the " Reports and Returns relating 
to Evictions in the Kilrush Union " will be of 
absorbing interest. These extracts tell over and 
over again the same tale, until the heart grows 
sick with the repetition of ghastly and almost 
incredible horrors. For the sickening details we 
have neither heart nor space. The sum and sub- 
stance of the story is this : the people had so 
suffered by famine and fever that they could 
not pay their rents. A very great number of 
evictions and clearances took place throughout 
the country. 

It was one of the chief dreams of that period 
that the Celtic race should be replaced by a 
sturdier and more self-reliant race — the assump- 
tion being of course that it was Irish vice and 
incapacity, and not English laws, that caused the 
hideous breakdown of the English land system 




GLADSTONE PRESENTING THE HOME RULE BILL, i8 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 413 

in Ireland. "They devised a plan," said the 
Solicitor General, " which he hoped would induce 
capitalists from England to take an interest in the 
sales." And Sir Robert Peel took the trouble of 
elaborating a scheme for a new plantation of 
Ireland by the substitution of English and Scotch 
for Irish landlords. 

Possibly English or Scotch landlords would 
have been incapable of the hideous cruelty de- 
picted by Captain Kennedy and so many other 
writers of the times ; it required the training of 
the centuries through which the Irish land had 
passed to inure their hearts to such revolting 
crimes. It was apparently the desire of the 
English statesmen of that period to get rid of as 
many of the peasantry as possible. After all the 
ravages of hunger, the decimation through fever, 
the terrible emigration, it was deemed that the 
true remedy for Ireland was more emigration ! 
Indeed, the unfitness of Ireland for the Irish race 
and the Irish race for Ireland was a dogma preached 
with something like the frenzy of a new revelation. 
A select committee of the House of Lords was 
especially catholic in its search for a better land 
for Irishmen than the land which had given them 
birth. 

An association consisting of six peers and 
twelve commoners, styled " The Irish Committee," 
also devoted itself very earnestly to the question 
of emigration. In this Irish Committee were two 



414 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

Englishmen — Mr. Godley and Dr. Whately — the 
latter the well-known Archbishop of Dublin. Dr. 
Whately's name is still held in affectionate and 
respectful remembrance by many people in Eng- 
land. At this epoch, and, as will be seen, still 
more in a subsequent epoch of Irish history, his 
counsels were among the most fatal to the pros- 
perity of Ireland. This body drew out an elabo- 
rate scheme under which a million and a half of 
the Irish people were to be sent to Canada at a 
cost of 9,000,000/. 

But all this time the idea never occurred to any 
of the English leaders that there should be the 
slightest interference with the power of the land- 
lords. The power of the landlords had been the 
main cause of the horrors through which Ireland 
was passing ; and yet the landlords were to be left 
that power. The mass of the people were to be 
exported to Canada or Australia, and the country 
was to be delivered entirely to their lords and 
masters. The land of Ireland was to be laid 
waste of as many of six millions of people as ten 
thousand landlords chose to condemn to banish- 
ment. 

At this point it will be instructive to consider 
the action not only of the Imperial Parliament 
but that of the Liberal leaders in particular. 
Lord John Russell, as had been seen, had got into 
office on the rejection of an Irish Coercion Bill. 
He had objected to the Coercion Bill of Sir 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 415 

Robert Peel not merely on account of the harsh- 
ness of its provisions, the weakness of the case 
in its favor, the sufficiency of the ordinary law ; 
his chief ground of objection was that Ireland 
was in crying need of remedial legislation, and 
that no Coercion Bill ought to be considered by 
Parliament unless it was accompanied, and ac- 
companied even stage by stage, by remedial pro- 
posals. His reference to the ills of Ireland were 
pitched in as high a key as even the most vehe- 
ment of Irish repealers could have wished. 

" Such," he asserted, " is the incentive which is 
given to the poor Irish peasant to break the law, 
which he considers deprives him of the means, 
not of being rich, but of the means of obtaining 
a subsistence. On this ground, then, if you were 
right to introduce any measure to repress crime 
beyond the ordinary powers of the law, it would 
have been right at the same time to introduce 
other measures by which the means of sub- 
sistence might be increased, and by which the 
land upon which alone the Irish peasant subsists, 
might be brought more within his reach, and 
other modes of occupation allowed to him more 
than he now possesses." 

" I know," he said, " indeed, that the noble lord 
(the Earl of Lincoln) has introduced within the 
last two or three days measures upon a very 
complicated subject — the law of landlord and ten- 
ant ; but I think those measures should have been 



416 GLADSTONE— tARNELL. 

introduced at the same time with the measure now 
before the House. How is it possible for this 
House, upon such a subject, to be able to tell, 
from the noble lord's enumeration of them, 
whether upon such a delicate subject such meas- 
ures are sufficient ? " 

And shortly afterwards he declared that, while 
he opposed the measure, the state of crime did 
not supply " sufficient ground for passing a meas- 
ure of extraordinary severity." The reason, 
" above all," of his hostility was that the Coer- 
cion Bill had " not been accompanied . . . with 
such measures of relief, of remedy, and concili- 
ation, affecting the great mass of the people of 
Ireland, who are in distress, as ought to accompany 
any measure tending to increased rigor of the law!' 

He proposed a grant for the reclamation of 
waste lands, and he proposed a bill for " securing 
at the same time the lives and properties of those 
who reside on the land ; " in other words, a 
scheme of tenant right. If such measures were 
not proposed promptly, there might come "a 
dreadful outbreak, when, indeed, you will hastily 
resort to measures of remedy and conciliation, 
but which measures will lose half their practical 
effect and almost all their moral effect." 

Again in 1847, while the stress of the famine 
made the neglect of Irish reform too shameful a 
thing for even the British Parliament to stomach, 
Lord John Russell was strongly in favor of re- 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 417 

form. In the speech at the beginning of the ses- 
sion, in which he proposed the Soup Kitchen 
Act, he declared that there was urgent necessity 
for some permanent alteration in the land laws. 
The miseries of Ireland, he laid down in the most 
emphatic language, were not due to the character 
of the soil. "There is no doubt," exclaimed 
Lord John Russell, " of the fertility of the land ; 
that fertility has been the theme of admiration 
with writers and travellers of all nations." 

"There is no doubt either, I must say, of the 
strength and industry of the inhabitants. The man 
who is loitering idly by the mountain-side in Tippe- 
rary or in Derry, whose potato-plot has furnished 
him merely with occupation for a few days in the 
year, whose wages and whose pig have enabled him 
to pay his rent and eke out afterwards a miserable 
subsistence — that man, I say, may have a brother 
in Liverpool, or Glasgow, or London, who by the 
sweat of his brow, from morning to night, is com- 
peting with the strongest and steadiest laborer of 
England and Scotland, and is earning wages 
equal to any of them." 

Earl Grey, another eminent Whig, was equally 
outspoken in his declarations. Like Lord John 
Russell, he had declared against coercion unac- 
companied by remedial measures. He enume- 
rated that long list of Coercion Acts which we 
have already set forth, winding up with the In- 
surrection Act, passed in 1833, renewed in 1834, 



418 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

and but five years expired. "And again," he 
said in 1846, "we are called on to renew it. 
We must look further," continued his lordship ; 
" we must look to the root of the evil ; the state 
of the law and the habits of the people, in respect 
to the occupation of the land, are almost at the roots 
of the disorder; " it was undeniable that the clear- 
ance system prevailed to a great extent in Ireland ; 
and that such things could take place, he cared 
not how large a population might be suffered to 
grow up in a particular district, was a disgrace to 
a civilized country. 

In 1848 the famine had not passed away. The 
succeeding year was the very worst in the cen- 
tury, except 1847. B'Jt by this time Lord John 
Russell entirely changed his tune. He met every 
demand for reform with an uncompromising neg- 
ative. 

" While," said Lord John Russell, " I admit that, 
with respect to the franchise and other subjects, 
the people of Ireland may have just grounds of 
complaint, I, nevertheless, totally deny that their 
grievances are any sufficient reason why they 
should not make very great progress in wealth 
and prosperity, if, using the intelligence which 
they possess in a remarkable degree, they would 
fix their minds on the advantages which they 
might enjoy rather than upon the evils which 
they suppose themselves to suffer under." 

Then he made allusion to a Bill which had 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 419 

been brought in by Sir William Somerville for 
dealing with the Land question. Its proposals 
were indeed modest. It gave compensation to 
tenants for permanent improvements ; but those 
improvements had to be made with the consent 
of the landlords, and it was not proposed that the 
Bill should be retrospective. But, modest as these 
proposals were, it did not gain the full approval 
of the Prime Minister, and they did not secure 
the safety of the Bill, To any such proposal as 
fixity of tenure the Liberal Prime Minister could 
offer his strongest hostility. 

" But, after all," said Lord John Russell, " that 
which we should look to for improving the rela- 
tions between landlord and tenant is a better 
mutual understanding between those who occupy 
those relative positions. Voluntary agreements 
between landlords and tenants, carried out for the 
benefit of both, are, after all, a better means of 
improving the land of Ireland than any legislative 
measure which can be passed." 

The "better mutual understanding" on which 
the Prime Minister relied for an improvement in 
the relations of landlord and tenant at this mo- 
ment was hounding the landlords to carry on 
wholesale clearances which, in the opinion of 
Earl Grey, were " a disgrace to a civilized coun- 
try;" which had been denounced over and over 
again by Lord John Russell himself; and which, 
in the opinion of most men, remain as one of the 
24 



4^0 GLADSTONE— PARK ETX. 

blackest records in all history of man's inhumanity 
to man. In that year, following the exhortation 
of the Prime Minister to voluntary agreements 
" for the benefit of both," the landlords had evicted 
no less than half a million of tenants. 

The final split between Young Ireland and 
O'Connell was precipitated, it will be remem- 
bered, by the attitude which O'Connell insisted 
on taking up towards the Whig ministry. The 
Young Irelanders maintained that the Irish party 
should hold towards Russell the same independent 
attitude as had been taken up towards the Tory 
ministry of Peel ; that the repeal agitation should 
be continued, and that the nominees of the Whig 
ministry, like Sheil, should meet the same oppo- 
sition as all other opponents of repeal and all 
other British office-holders. The Young Ire- 
landers would not place faith in Whig promises, 
O'Connell's power was thus destroyed, the people 
were divided and impotent in face of the most 
awful crisis in their history, and O'Connell died 
of a broken heart. And here was Lord John 
Russell, on whom O'Connell had placed his re- 
liance, to whose good faith O'Connell sacrificed 
his party and himself and his country, justifying 
the very worst predictions of the Young Ire- 
landers, wrecking the hopes and blasting the 
lives of the Irish nation. The trust was be- 
trayed, openly, shamelessly, heartlessly. Fur- 
ther instances will be found in the following 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 421 

pages where the Irish people, untaught by their 
experiences, again placed their faith in the Whig 
party, and again found that they relied on a rot- 
ten reed. 

The frightful state of things in 1847 naturally 
produced a considerable amount of disturbance. 
Many of the tenants were indecent enough to 
object to being robbed of their own improve- 
ments even with the sanction of an alien Parlia- 
ment, and went the length of revolting against 
their wives and children beine massacred whole- 
sale. In short, the rent was in danger, and in 
favor of that sacred institution all the resources 
of British law and British force were promptly 
despatched. The Legislature had shown no 
hurry whatever to meet in '46 or '47, when the 
question at issue was whether hundreds of thou- 
sands of the Irish tenantry should perish of hunger 
or of the plague. Now Parliament could not be 
summoned too soon, and a Coercion Bill could 
not be carried with too much promptitude. 

It will not be necessary to recall the quotations 
which have just been made from the speech of 
Lord John Russell in opposing the Coercion Bill 
of 1846. Suffice it to say that while in 1846 he 
had objected to the Coercion Bill, " above all " 
because it was not accompanied with measures 
*' of relief, of remedy, and conciliation," and that 
he had gone so far as to pledge himself to the 
principle that some such proposals ought to ac- 



422 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

company any measure which tended to " increased 
rigor of the law," Lord John Russell was now 
himself proposing a measure for greatly "in- 
creased rigor of the law," not only without ac- 
companying it with any measure of " relief, of 
remedy, of conciliation " on his own part, but 
vehemently opposing any such measure when 
brought in by any other person. Lord Grey 
has been quoted for his opinion on the clear- 
ance system, and here was the clearance system 
going on worse than ever, and Lord Grey re- 
maining a member of the Ministry. 

The police were urged to unusual activity, and 
large bodies of the military even were pressed 
into the service of the landlords, seized the pro- 
duce of the fields, carried them to Dublin for 
sale — acted in every respect as the collectors of 
the rent of the landlord, and thus shared the 
honor of starving the tenants. 

In 1848 a number of Irishmen, as has been 
seen, driven to madness by the dreadful suffering 
they everywhere saw around, and by the neglect 
or incapacity of Parliament, had sought the des- 
perate remedy of open revolt. The men who, for 
wrongs much less grievous, rose in the same 
year in Hungary or France or Italy, were the idols 
of the British people, and were aided and encour- 
aged by British statesmen. But British action 
towards Ireland was to pass a Treason Felony 
Act, and to suspend the Habeas Corpus Act. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 423 

Parliament came together. Lord John Russell 
brousfht forward his bill. Sir Robert Peel at once 
** gave his cordial support to the proposed meas- 
ure." Mr. Disraeli "declared his intention of 
giving the measure of government his unvarying 
and unequivocal support." Mr. Hume was 
"obliged, though reluctantly, to give his consent 
to the measure of the government." Lord John 
Russell said that " as the House had expressed so 
unequivocally its feeling in favor of the bill, it 
would doubtless permit its further stages to be 
proceeded with instanter. He moved the second 
reading," Of course the House permitted the 
further stages to be proceeded with instanter, and 
the bill, having passed through committee, "Lord 
Russell moved the third reading," which was 
agreed to, " and the bill was forthwith taken up 
to the House of Lords." " On the next day but 
one, Monday, July 26," goes on the "Annual Reg- 
ister," " the bill was proposed by the Marquis of 
Lansdowne, who concluded his speech in its favor 
by moving 'that the public safety requires that 
the bill should be passed with all possible de- 
spatch.' " Of course the motion was accepted by 
their Lordships " that the bill should be passed 
with all possible despatch ; " and " the bill passed 
nem. dis. through all its stages." This was the 
action of liberty-loving Englishmen in 1848. 

The reader will not forget that in the year up 
to which I have now brought the story of legisla- 



424 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

tion upon the land question, Ireland was perfectly 
tranquil. The agitation for repeal, which had 
reached such mighty and apparently resistless 
proportions in 1843, had vanished amid dissen- 
sions, hunger, fever, emigration, and a vast multi- 
tude of corpses. The Imperial Parliament was 
unchecked mistress of the destinies of Ireland. 

Having described the famine, but two things 
remain to be discussed. Was the famine inevita- 
ble ? Or was it preventable evil — evil that was 
created by bad, and that could have been pre- 
vented by good, government ? 

Most persons will hold that a civilized, highly 
organized, and extremely wealthy government 
ought to be able to meet such a crisis so effectu- 
ally as to prevent the loss of one single life by 
hunger. In the present generation India was 
menaced by a famine. Public opinion in England 
demanded that not one of our Indian fellow-sub- 
jects should die of hunger; and not one did die. 
Some Irish writers are accustomed to present the 
theory that the terrors and horrors of the famine 
were the result of a deliberate conspiracy to mur- 
der wholesale an inconvenient, troublesome, and 
hostile nation. Such a theory may be rejected, 
and yet leave a heavy load of guilt on the Minis- 
ters. Statesmen must be judged by the results 
of their policy. The policy which created the 
famine was the land legislation of the British Par- 
liament. The refusal of the British Legislature 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 425 

to interfere with rack-rents ; the refusal to protect 
the improvements of the tenants ; the facilities 
and inducements to wholesale eviction — these 
were the things that produced the famine of 1846. 

The Act of Union, which made famine possible, 
and then aggravated it to the unsurpassable max- 
imum, had also the effect of increasing the exist- 
ing hatred between the English and the Irish 
nations. While the famine was giving such tragic 
testimony in justification of the agitation of the 
Irish people for repeal, the movement had left in 
the minds of the English people a strong feeling 
of antagonism to the Irish. 

On the other hand, it is easy to understand how 
the Irish should have been embittered to frenzy 
when they saw the dominant nation, that claimed 
and had carried its superior right to govern, so 
performing its functions of government that roads 
throughout Ireland were impassable with the 
gaunt forms of the starving, or the corpses of the 
starved, and that every ship was freighted with 
emigrants. To this day the traveller in America 
will meet Irishmen who were evicted from Ireland 
in the great clearances of the Famine time, and 
they speak even to this hour with a bitterness as 
fresh as if the wrong were but of yesterday. It 
was these clearances and the sight of wholesale 
starvation and plague, far more than racial feel- 
ings, that produced the hatred of English govern- 
ment which strikes impartial Americans as some- 



426 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

thing like frenzy, and that sowed in Irish breasts 
the feelings that in due time produced eager sub- 
scribers to the dynamite funds. Yet the EngHsh 
people not only did nothing to deserve such 
hatred, but rather did much to earn very different 
sentiments. Relief societies were formed almost 
everywhere. I have myself heard an Englishman 
say that he remembered the Famine because, 
being a child at the time, he was forbidden to 
take any butter with his bread in order that some 
money might be saved for the starving poor of 
Ireland. It was, then, not the English people 
that were to blame for the horrors of the Irish 
famine, excepting so far as they were responsible 
for their choice of representatives. It was the 
British Parliament and Ministers that worked the 
wholesale slaughter of Irishmen which has pro- 
duced the murderous hatred of so many of their 
race for England. It is the government of Ireland 
by Englishmen and by English opinion that has 
the double result of ruining Ireland and endan- 
gering England. 

Another point that requires discussion is, 
whether the famine was avoidable. Irish writers 
maintain that, in spite of the loss of the potato, 
there was enough of food produced in Ireland 
during these very famine years to have prevented 
a single person in the country from dying of star- 
vation. 

The landlords took from the tenants all the 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 427 

produce, "minus the potatoes, necessary to 
keep them from famine." When the potatoes 
failed, the remainder of the produce, instead of 
beinof divided between the landlords and the 
tenants, was sent to either home or foreign mar- 
kets for the purpose of paying the rents of the 
landlords. In other words, it was the consump- 
tion of food by rent instead of by the people that 
produced the famine. It was, as Mitchel calls it, 
an artificial famine. 

Meantime a change had come over Ireland. 
Under the pressure of hunger, ravenous creatures 
prowled around barn and storehouse, stealing 
corn, potatoes, cabbage, turnips — anything, in a 
word, that might be eaten. Later on, the fields 
had to be watched, gun in hand, or the seed was 
rooted up and devoured raw. This state of 
things struck a fatal blow at some of the most 
beautiful traits of Irish life. It destroyed the sim- 
ple confidence that bolted no door; it banished 
forever a custom which throughout the island was 
of almost universal obligation — the housing for 
the night, with cheerful welcome, of any poor 
wayfarer who claimed hospitality. Fear of " the 
fever," even where no apprehension of robbery 
was entertained, closed every door, and the cus- 
tom once killed off has not revived. A thousand 
kindly usages and neighborly courtesies were 
swept away. The open-handed, open-hearted 
ways of the rural population have been visibly 



428 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

affected by the " Forty-seven ordeal." Their an- 
cient sports and pastimes everywhere disappeared, 
and in many parts of Ireland have never returned. 
The famine swallowed things more precious 
than money, or even than human lives. The 
temperance reformation, the political training of a 
generation, the self-respect, the purity and gen- 
erosity which distinguished Irish peasants, were 
sorely wasted. A sight of such piercing woe was 
never seen as a Munster workhouse, with hun- 
dreds of a once frank and gallant yeomanry 
turned into sullen beasts, wallowing on the floor, 
unless it were that other spectacle of the women 
waiting around the same edifice for outdoor relief. 
Wherever the traveller went in Galway or Mayo, 
he met troops of wild, idle, lunatic-looking pau- 
pers wandering over the country. Gray-headed 
old men, with faces settled into a leer of hardened 
mendicancy, and women filthier and more fright- 
ful than harpies, who at the jingle of a coin on the 
pavement swarmed in myriads from unseen 
places, struggling, screaming, shrieking for their 
prey like monstrous and unclean animals. Beg- 
gar-children, beggar-girls, with faces gray and 
shrivelled, met you everywhere ; and women with 
the more touching and tragic aspect of lingering 
shame and self-respect not yet effaced. Poor, 
mutilated, and debased scions of a tender, brave, 
and pious stock, they were martyrs in the batde 
of centuries for the right to live in their own land, 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 429 

It Is certain that to-day Ireland is the saddest 
country in this world of many countries and 
many tears. With the famine joy died in 
Ireland ; the day of its resurrection has not yet 
come. 

We must hasten forward and pass in rapid re- 
view the days of the earlier agitation for tenant 
rights; the Irish victories in the elections of 1852; 
the black treason of William Keogh and John 
Sadleir; the years of ruin and disgrace which 
followed ; the cruelties of the dominant land- 
lordism between 1852 and 1865; the general 
decay of the country. The traveller can pass for 
miles, and see a country on which not a single 
human being remains ; the frequent ruin speaks 
of a vanished population as effectually scattered 
as the populations of those entombed cities in 
Italy, the ruins of which to-day with such compell- 
ing silence tell the tale of tumultuous life reduced 
to stillness and death. 

It is one of the saddest and most dreadful 
stories in all history. It is the spectacle, under 
the semblance of law, and without any particular 
noise, and certainly without attracting any par- 
ticular attention, of an ancient and brave nation 
being slowly but surely wiped out of existence. 
Not a section, or a class, or a percentage, but 
the whole people were being swept away, their 
land was yearly becoming more desolate, and all 
the probabilities pointed to the near advent of 



430 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

the period when the country would be one great 
sheep and cattle farm with the vast desert broken 
only at long intervals by the herd. 

Meantime the Parliament looked on and did 
nothing ; the rulers declared that the hellish work 
was good ; the press of the dominant country 
hissed out triumphant hate ; and popular repre- 
sentation had fallen into the hands of self-seekers, 
heartless, lying and base. It is in such periods 
that a desperate spirit is evoked and is necessary. 
The masses of the people were still sound, and 
there were among the population chosen spirits 
who were resolved to show that the struggle, 
which had been maintained through so many 
centuries, was not even yet at an end ; that, if the 
Irish nation were to be murdered, at least her 
people would try to make one final and desperate 
stand. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

RESURRECTION. 

THE Fenian movement was largely the crea- 
tion of Irish-America. Thither had fled at 
various periods men who, having taken part in 
revolts against the intolerable tyranny of Eng- 
land in Ireland, were unable to remain in their 
own country. The Irish in America were besides 
impelled to resentment against the unhappy posi- 
tion of their country by the sight of the prosperity 
of a free Republic. Thus in many ways the new 
world in spite of its official neutrality deeply influ- 
ences the history of the old. James Stephens 
and John O'Mahony were the two main spirits in 
organizing this attempt by armed force to destroy 
British dominion in Ireland. They were able to 
gather into their ranks many earnest and brave 
men in some parts of Ireland ; they got a strong 
hold on the military; and in fact they made a 
movement the proportions of which were a 
formidable threat against the English power. 
But the movement had many weaknesses — above 
all it suffered from the want of war material. It 
made several attempts at a rising ; but the men 

431 



432 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

were without arms and were easily overcome. 
Successive batches of leaders were tried before 
packed juries ; and there was the old story in Irish 
life of perjury, bribed informers, partisan judges ; 
and then after conviction followed sentences of 
unjustifiable cruelty. Ind( ed, in most cases the 
cruelty began before the sentences were passed. 
The Imperial Parliament, which could never find 
time or will to stand between Ireland and de- 
struction by eviction and emigration, turned all 
its force to the passing of coercion laws. The 
Habeas Corpus Act was suspended without cere- 
mony. On one occasion the Houses of Parlia- 
ment sat through all Saturday and even into the 
Sabbath in order to more speedily pass such a 
law. Then men were seized all over the coun- 
try, were cast into prison and were kept there 
sometimes as long as a year without being 
brought to trial. While thus confined they were 
treated exactly as if they had been convicted — in 
some cases worse ! The result was that several 
of them went insane, and afterwards more than 
one ended his own life. When the Fenian 
prisoners were convicted they were sent among 
the ordinary prisoners : thieves, burglars, mur- 
derers — the scum and refuse of English society. 

The Fenian movement as an armed revolt 
against the forces of England failed ; but as a 
trumpet-call to Ireland to rouse herself from her 
lethargy of death it succeeded. Two events came 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 433 

finally in connection with Fenianism that exer- 
cised a stronof influence on the future of Ireland. 
The one was the blowing down of the prison in 
London in which a prominent Fenian prisoner 
was confined ; and the other was the rescue of 
Captain Kelly, the successor to Mr. Stephens in 
the leadership of the movement, and a companion 
named Deasy from a prison van in Manchester. 
In the blowing down of Clerkenwell there was 
unhappily a large loss of innocent life ; in the 
attack on the prison van at Manchester a ser- 
geant of police was accidentally killed. Three 
men were executed for the Manchester rescue — 
Allan, Larkin, and O'Brien. Their trial took 
place under circumstances of popular panic and 
amid a tempest of popular hatred in England. 
The evidence against them was weak ; it was 
proved afterwards to be grossly false in some 
particulars ; while on the other hand there was 
abundant testimony that the shooting of Sergeant 
Brett was accidental and unintentional. Several 
attempts were made to have the sentence on the 
three Irishmen commuted, but all failed; and they 
were executed. The event created terrible ex- 
citement all through the Irish world, wherever it 
might be. O'Mara Condon, one of the men tried 
at the same time and condemned to death, but 
afterwards sentenced to penal servitude, used the 
phrase " God Save Ireland " from the dock. Mr. 
T. D. Sullivan wrote a poem to this refrain in the 



434 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

Nation newspaper ; it spread like wild-fire, and to- 
day it may be described as the national anthem 
of Ireland. 

It was fortunate for Ireland that at this moment 
the Liberal party was led by Mr. Gladstone. The 
features, moral, physical and mental, of this re- 
markable man are already familiar to every 
American. He was the man above all others 
suited for the great occasion which had now 
arisen. There has scarcely ever been an English- 
man who exercised so great a control over the 
hearts and minds of the English people. He has 
always appealed to their higher and better emo- 
tions; and thus he has been able to raise a moral 
tempest in which they were caught up and carried 
away. The marvellous combination of different 
and apparendy contradictory gifts is one of the 
striking things in his nature. There is no man 
more intimately acquainted with the technique of 
a Parliamentary and official life. He has been 
several times Chancellor of the Exchequer. In 
that position it has been his business to become 
master of the details and inner life of many of the 
trades of the country. He has been able to meet 
all comers in the debates on the smallest items 
of the annual budofet. 

But there is another side to this great character. 
There is no man who understands better the 
great heart-throbs of humanity, and that can bet- 
ter employ the chords to which they thrill. He 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 435 

is capable of painting large as well as small, and 
of presenting a great public question to the peo- 
ple in the limited broad visible lines with which 
the masses must be approached. He is thus as 
successful on the platform as on the floor of the 
House of Commons. In 1867 he took up the 
question of the Irish Church. 

The Irish Church did not then seem to be the 
most serious of Irish grievances. But the Irish 
Catholics had to pay for the support of the church 
of the Protestant minority. The dissenters of 
England themselves suffer under an Established 
and Endowed Church ; and accordingly Mr. Glad- 
stone was able to command their enthusiastic 
support in his crusade against the Irish establish- 
ment. But even EnMish churchmen could see 
nothing to defend in a church which was not the 
church of the majority of the Irish people. The 
campaign was fought amid a cyclone of popular 
passion, and in many respects resembled the 
struggle that has just closed on the Home Rule 
question. The English masses were appealed to 
on religious grounds ; the Protestant Church was 
declared to be in danger; and even the uncon- 
verted Hebrew, Mr. Disraeli, declared that Mr. 
Gladstone was the agent of the Jesuits. Lanca- 
shire then as now declared itself against the policy 
of justice to Ireland ; and Mr. Gladstone, who 
sought a seat in one of its divisions, was defeated. 

The Rev. John Flanagan was one of the most 



436 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

conspicuous figures on the Orange platforms 
during the anti-disestablishment agitation. At a 
meeting at Newbliss, County Monaghan, on 
March 20th, 1868, he made a celebrated speech, 
in which a phrase occurs that has since become 
classical. 

" If they ever dare to lay unholy hands upon 
the church, 200,000 Orangemen will tell them it 
shall never be. Protestant loyalty must make it- 
self understood. People will say, 'Oh, your 
loyalty is conditional.' I say it is conditional, and 
it must be explained as such. Will you, Orange- 
men of Ireland, endorse the doctrine of uncon- 
ditional loyalty ? (Repeated cries of* No, never.') 
It appears wonderful that there is one thing upon 
which we can confidently throw ourselves, and 
which has been overlooked by nearly all speakers 
— I mean the Queen's Coronation Oath. She 
should be reminded that one of her ancestors, 
who swore to maintain the Protestant religion, 
forgot his oath, and his crown was kicked into the 
Boy^ieT 

The Rev. W. H. Ferrar made one of the most 
spirited of the ''civil war" speeches of the period 
at a Rathmines meeting on March 6th, 1868. 

" If the Church Establishment be destroyed in 
Ireland, there cannot, there shall not, there must 
not be peace in Ireland. ... If they think the 
Protestants of Ireland will succumb without a 
struggle, they know not the men with whom they 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 437 

have to deal. That I say solemnly before God. 
If they want us to die as martyrs, we will die as 
soldiers. . . . Protestants of all denominations 
would stand shoulder to shoulder, as they did be- 
hind the walls of Derry. They will stand shoul- 
der to shoulder, as they did at the passage of the 
Boyne." 

Mr. Ferrar has since died, but he did not die 
either as a soldier or as a martyr. 

One of the meetings which were to have had 
the most terrifying effect on Mr. Gladstone and 
his " co-conspirators " was that held early in 
May, 1868, in Portadown, under the presidency 
of the Duke of Manchester, and the most war- 
like deliverance at that meeting was the speech 
of the Rev. Thomas Ellis. From this speech, as 
reported in the Belfast News-letter, we quote the 
following passage : 

"We will fight as men alone can fight, who 
have the Bible in one hand and the sword in the 
other. We will fight — nay, if needs be, we will 
die — die as our fathers died before us, as our 
sons will die who succeed us. Yes, we will die, 
if needs be ; and this will be our dying cry — 
echoed and re-echoed from earth to heaven and 
from heaven to earth, echoed and re-echoed 
from one end of Ulster to the other — ' No Popery ! 
No surrender ! ' " 

The Rev. Henry Henderson, at a great Orange 
open air meeting on Tamnamore Hill, County 
Tyrone, on June 8th, 1869, said: 



438 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

"A newspaper had been abusing the High 
Sheriff and himself, saying that they were bluster- 
ing about rebellion. He now said : Yes, they 
would sacrifice their lives before they would 
allow their religious rights to be taken from them. 
Yes, with the blessing of God, they would do 
what their fathers did at Derry, Aughrim and 
at the Boyne. So far as he was concerned, let 
there be no mistake. He spoke now not rashly, 
but calmly and deliberately. Mr. Gladstone and 
his co-conspirators were driving us into civil 
war." 

At the same meeting the Rev. Leslie Canter 
said : 

"The Orangemen would not allow Gladstone 
and his crew to trample on the throne and the 
Protestant constitution. They would compel the 
House of Commons to listen to the voice of the 
men of Ulster, although they had refused to 
listen to their noble representative, Mr. Vernon. 
Only the Channel rolled between them ; they, 
the Protestants of the North, would march to the 
House of Commons, and compel their enemies 
to be silent while their representatives were 
speaking. If Barrett was executed for blowing 
up a prison, the time might not be far distant 
when, for attempting to blow up our venerable 
Protestant constitution, Gladstone and his co-con- 
spirators might be hanging as high as Haman." 

We give as a specimen of clerical oratory the 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 439 

lines with which the Rev. C. Maginniss wound up 
a speech at Omagh : 

" Our bosoms we'll bare to the glaring strife, 
Our vows are recorded on high ; 
To prevail in the cause is dearer than life, 
Or crushed in its ruins to die." 

These extracts we have taken from Mr, J. J. 
Clancy's excellent pamphlet, "The Orange Bogey." 

Mr. Gladstone's party in the Imperial Parlia- 
ment, however, went on their way without paying 
the least attention to these threats. The House 
of Lords made resistance for a while, but finally 
gave in, and the Church was disestablished. 

In the course of Mr. Gladstone's great cam- 
paign against the Irish Church he had gone over 
the whole area of Irish grievances, and had spoken 
of Irish wrongs in tones of sympathy that were as 
novel as they were welcome to the Irish people. 
It was in the course of these speeches, too, that 
he first gave in germ the ideas which have since 
borne fruit as to Home Rule. He said he thought 
Ireland ought to be dealt with more in accordance 
with Irish ideas. One of the first movements that 
were started now was one in favor of the release 
of the political prisoners who had taken part in 
the Fenian agitations. The admission by Mr. 
Gladstone that Ireland was suffering from griev- 
ous and intolerable wrongs made it cruel, and also 
illogical, to keep the men in jail who had been 
driven to the desperate expedient of rebellion in 



440 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

order to remedy those wrongs. The Irish people, 
too, could but admire the courage of the men 
whose love of Ireland had driven them to face 
the risk of the gallows and penal servitude. 

The movement for their release swept over the 
country like wildfire. Mighty gatherings were 
held in all the towns, and resolutions were every- 
where passed calling for an amnesty. It was this 
movement that brought back into Irish life a man 
who was destined to play an important part in 
events now about to come — Isaac Butt. He was 
chosen as the advocate of the Fenian prisoners, 
and he defended them all with indubitable energy 
and brilliant ability, and with all the forensic re- 
sources of a great advocate. Of course he failed 
to win the game against the desperate odds of 
that day. Afterwards he joined in the movement 
for the release of the prisoners — in fact was al- 
most its only prominent supporter for a while ; 
and so was forced into a position that won for 
him the affections of his country. 

The farmers were next to be aroused, and once 
more a movement was started in favor of the 
principles of tenant rights. Sir John Grey, the 
editor of Freeman s yournal, was one of the lead- 
ing public men of his day, and was a man of 
transcendent ability and tireless energy. He 
had been one of the main instruments in pro- 
curing the destruction of the Irish Church, against 
which he had waged incessant war for more than 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 44I 

a quarter of a century. He now joined Butt in 
the agitation for tenant right. The demands of 
the tenants were for what are known as the three 
F's — that is to say, "fixity of tenure" or protec- 
tion against eviction ; " free sale " — that is to say, 
the right to freely dispose of their lands to who- 
soever they please ; and " fair rent " — that is, a 
power to bring the question of their rents before 
a judicial tribunal. Abundant evidence has been 
given in preceding chapters of the existence of 
the necessity for all these reforms. It has been 
seen how rack-renting by the landlords for cen- 
turies has brought a mass of the Irish people to 
a condition barely removed from starvation ; and 
it has also been seen how eviction ragged like a 
pestilence throughout the country. Free sale was 
rendered necessary by the curious custom mainly 
obtaining in the north of Ireland, under which the 
tenants were actually forbidden to sell their good- 
will in the land to the highest bidder. The land- 
lords there were forbidden by the custom of the 
province to turn a tenant out if he paid his rent ; 
but, at the same time, they were free to make the 
tenant's remaining on his holding impossible by 
frequent and outrageous raising of rents. And 
they also exercised the right to prevent the ten- 
ant getting more than a certain fixed sum for the 
good-will. This was the origin of the demand for 
free sale. These reforms the tenantry of the 
country demanded with unanimous voice, and 



442 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

the hope of obtaining them roused almost a 
frenzy of excitement throughout the country. 
Between the pronouncements of Grey and those 
of Butt on this question there was a certain 
difference. Grey was a member of the Impe- 
rial Parliament, and was hopeful that the same 
success would attend the Land agitation that had 
already rewarded him in his fight against the Irish 
Church. He therefore tauo-ht the farmers to ex- 
pect that Mr. Gladstone would be able to pass the 
House of Commons a Bill giving the tenantry of 
Ireland " the three F's ; " while Mr, Butt, on the 
other hand, more accurately appreciated the situ- 
ation. He had declared over and over again that, 
in his opinion, it was foolish and futile to look to 
the Imperial Parliament for such a radical settle- 
ment of the question ; and he taught the farmers 
to rely on their own organization and their own 
efforts ; to go on with their movement, irrespective 
of the Parliament. 

The character of the Land Bill of 1870 added 
another proof of the incapacity of the Imperial 
Parliament to deal with Irish affairs. Mr. Glad- 
stone had the will to carry a measure of as 
large a force as the Irish people themselves could 
desire. He was supported apparently by a party 
of resistless power, for he had a majority of 
upwards of a hundred. Nevertheless he had to 
content himself with bringing in a lame and halt- 
ing measure — the defects of which were palpable. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 443 

This was mainly because the public opinion of 
England on the Land question was utterly un- 
sound. In England the land system is very dis- 
tinct in many of its features from the land system 
in Ireland. In Ireland labor and ownership of 
soil are indissolubly united, and certain peculiar 
tenant-rights are conceded. The agricultural 
parts of England consist of large estates split up 
into extensive farms, cultivated by a race of 
agricultural laborers that, as a rule, do not own a 
rood of land. Ireland, on the other hand, con- 
sists of a vast number of small holdings owned 
(subject to the landlord's claims) and cultivated 
by the same person. Up to this period England 
regarded her own land system as perfect. The 
depreciation of prices produced by American 
competition, and other circumstances, have 
changed this view considerably within the last 
few years, and a movement has been started for 
the purpose of linking the ownership and cultiva- 
tion of the soil in England much on the plan that 
obtains in Ireland. But in 1870 England was ex- 
ulting in the possession of the best of land systems, 
and such proposals as those that were made on 
the part of the Irish tenantry were regarded as 
wild and wicked communism. Then the landlord 
power was able, as it is able still, to impose its 
will upon the legislation of the Imperial Parlia- 
ment. In the House of Commons that power is 
still a potent influence on the Liberal side as well 



444 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

as on the Tory ; for the Liberal party has among 
its foremost and most influential leaders men 
with acres as extensive and with ideas of landlord 
privileges as high as those on the Conservative 
benches opposite. The House of Lords, besides, 
is a House entirely consisting of landlords. It 
is, in fact, an assembly mainly employed in the 
preservation of landlord rights — or landlord 
wrongs. On an English question it is possible 
occasionally to overwhelm the landlord interest 
in the two Houses in a vast springtide of popular 
feeling. But English opinion can rarely, if ever, 
be aroused to the same state of excitement and 
enthusiasm about Irish questions. Besides on 
the land question at this period English opinion 
was in one direction, Irish opinion in another. 

A result of these various circumstances was 
that the Land Bill of 1870 was a miserable shift 
rather than a settlement of the land difficulty in 
Ireland. Still it gave the sanction of law for the 
first time to the principle of a joint interest of the 
tenant with the landlord in the soil. Hitherto 
that doctrine though cherished by the people had 
been opposed by the landlords as revolutionary 
and insensate. 

But this right was acknowledged by the new 
enactment in a very half-hearted way. The ten- 
ant could claim compensation for disturbance; 
that is to say, if he were turned out of his hold- 
ing, he could demand a certain amount of money 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 445 

from the landlord. The first defect of this was 
that compensation did not begin until after 
eviction ; that is, until the tenant had been placed 
in a position in which it was impossible to suffi- 
ciently compensate him. When the Irish tenant 
is deprived of his farm he is deprived of the sole 
means of livelihood that the country affords to 
him. To evict a tenant from his holding then is 
to deprive him of all further means of making a 
livelihood within Irish shores. The only real com- 
pensation, therefore, that could be given to a ten- 
ant for eviction would be such a sum as would 
enable him to live for the remainder of his days. 
Under the Land Bill of 1870 the scale of com- 
pensation was placed at an infinitely lower figure 
than this. In all holdings that did not exceed in 
value ;^io a year, according to the Poor Law 
valuation, the tenant might claim as a maximum 
seven years' rent — and in holdings between ^10 
and ;^30 yearly valuation five years' rent. It 
need scarcely be said that the maximum was 
never reached by the tenant. The courts before 
which the cases were tried, consisting mainly of 
the friends of the landlord, sometimes of the 
landlords themselves, took care to give the ten- 
ant as low a sum as possible. 

But there was a second fatal defect the mean- 
ing of which became clearer by-and-by. Com- 
pensation for disturbance could not be given in 
cases where the tenant was evicted for non-pay- 



446 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

ment of rent. The Land Act of 1870 did not 
allow any inquiry as to the amount of the rent. 
The rent might have been such a rack-rent as no 
human being could possibly pay — might be a rent 
that chronically kept the tenant in a condition 
just above starvation — the normal condition of 
rack-rented tenants. The result of it was that if 
a tenant was behindhand with his rent for a day 
or for a penny he might be evicted. There was 
no power to prevent the landlord from evicting, 
and no power to prevent him from rack-renting. 
By-and-by there came to Ireland one of those bad 
harvests by which that country has been visited 
so often. Failure of one crop removed the thin 
partition that separated the tenant from starva- 
tion, and broke him down in his efforts to 
meet impossible rents, for rental was an exac- 
tion which could barely be paid at the best 
of times. For such a state of things the Land 
Act of 1870 did not provide. The non-pay- 
ment of his rent by the tenant left him absolutely 
at the disposal of the landlord. And one season 
of distress again left the population of Ireland a 
race of tenants-at-will whom a few landlords could 
starve, evict and exile. The Land Act of 1870 
had broken down, and in no place more con- 
spicuously than in the north of Ireland. The 
landlords, shorn of a portion of their privileges, 
resolved to make larger use of the relics of their 
power. They could not evict without compensa- 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 447 

tion, but they could raise the rents, and accord- 
ingly the raising of rents went on immediately 
after the passing of the Act at a rate and to an 
extent never before paralleled. The raising of 
rents of course meant the increase of evictions, 
and the increase of evictions meant the increase 
of emigration. 

This miserable awakening from the dream of 
hope of 1869 produced a profound impression on 
the minds of the Irish farmers. In a native Par- 
liament, responsible to native opinion, did they 
once more see there was the only chance of ob- 
taining a real settlement of their grievances. 
Another and a very different section of the 
population had been tending in the very same 
direction through a very different cause. The 
destruction of the Irish Church Establishment 
had produced a feeling of great exasperation 
among many Irish Protestants, and they began 
to look with favor on any means which would 
relieve them from the control of an assembly 
which, as they thought, had forfeited their confi- 
dence. The idea of Home Rule is supposed by 
some to be a modern thing, and the events of 
1870 are pointed to as having given it birth. 
But the idea of getting rid of the Act of Union 
has existed in the Irish mind from the very hour 
that the Act of Union was passed. The Irish 
people never consented to the act, never ac- 
knowledged the act, never for one year surren- 



448 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

dered the hope that it would one time or other be 
withdrawn. There is hardly an Irishman to-day 
whose early recollections are not of the dream of 
getting rid of this act. The desire for the restor- 
ation of the Irish Parliament has been constant, 
persistent intense — the only difference is that 
sometimes its manifestations have been silent, 
and at other times loud. 

On the 19th of May, 1S70. a meeting took 
place at the Bilton Hotel, Dublin. The meeting 
was summoned by the following circular • 

[Private and confidential.'] 

Bilton Hotel, May 17///, 1S70. 
Dear Sir : You are requested to attend a pre- 
limlnan,- meeting of some of the leading citizens at 
the Bilton Hotel, on Thursday evening next, at 8 
o'clock, for the purpose of devising tlie best plan 
(to be laid before Her IMajest}') for promoting 
the future interests and welfare of Ireland. 
N. B. — The meeting will be strictly private. 

The signatures to this circular are the best 
guide as to the source whence tliis new movement 
came. They are those oi James \^okes Mackey, 
J. P., Graham Lemon, W. H. Kerr. \\*. Ledger 
Erson, J. P., Honorar}^ Secretaries. 

These e^ntlemen were all Protestants. It will 
thus be seen that the new movement for the 
restoration of the Irish Parliament, which is ver)' 
frequently denounced as an anti-Protestant cm- 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 449 

sade, was brought into the world under Protestant 
auspices. Mr, Butt was the central figure of this 
gathering. He pointed out with the force and 
terseness which he had at his command the 
various evils which an alien legislature had 
inflicted upon Ireland, described the daily increas- 
ing hopelessness and misery of the country, and 
finally called upon the assembly to establish a 
movement for the restoration of Irish prosperity. 
A Home Rule Association was founded, and thus 
the new movement was launched on its way. 

The Association resolved at making an attempt 
at obtaining seats in Parliament. Mr. Gladstone's 
success and speeches had the effect of blinding a 
good many people to the essential unfitness of 
the Imperial Parliament to deal with Irish affairs, 
and accordingly some classes of the population, 
and notably the clergy, in some districts were in- 
clined to resent any interference with the Glad- 
stone Liberal candidates as both ungrateful and 
unwise. 

A fundamental essential of an Irish party, if it 
is to be effective in the House of Commons, is 
that it should be independent alike of both 
English parties, that it should vote for the Whig 
or vote for the Tory in exact accordance with the 
demands of Irish interests, and that it should use 
its power standing between the Whig and the 
Tory for the purpose of raising and dethroning 
Ministries according to the demands of the Irish 



450 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

cause. But the new Home Rule party consisted 
of men who would never consent to such a doc- 
trine or such a policy over and over again. Butt 
tried to get them to adopt this policy, and over 
and over again he failed. The Home Rule party 
voted together on the Irish question, it is true, but 
obviously that made no difference to the English 
parties. On all the great divisions between the 
English parties, the Tories in the Home Rule 
party voted Tory and the Whigs voted Whig. 

Another essential of a good Irish party is that 
it should not work for and should not accept 
office. As has been already pointed out, it is im- 
possible to suppose that Ireland could get her 
rights if her cause were pleaded by men who 
were asking favors from English Ministers. But 
before long a number of the Irish Home Rule 
party were openly for sale. Many of them were 
Whigs, and accordingly could not get much from 
the Tory government. But some of them were 
quite willing to take office even from political 
opponents. But it was perfectly clear that if 
such a party were allowed to go on, and if the 
Liberals came into power, a large majority of 
them would forget all about Home Rule and 
would join the Liberal party as servile and 
obedient followers. 

The steps have already been described by 
which the Irish people were saved from this dread 
and terrible fate. Mr. Parnell and Mr. Biggar 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 45I 

had fortunately become members of the new- 
body. They were resolved that Ireland's hopes 
should not once more be destroyed by Tory or 
Whig slaves. They pressed forward their policy 
in season and out of season. They roused the 
country, they purified the party, they once more 
gave Ireland a chance and a hope. 

26 



CHAPTER IX. 

OLD FIGHT AGAIN. 

WE brought up the story of the Irish move- 
ment in an eariier part of the volume to 
the year 1879. That year again brought a crisis 
in the everlasting Land question ; and we found it 
necessary to go back in order to explain to the 
American reader how it was that the Land ques- 
tion in Ireland was different from what it was in 
America and other countries. We trust that the 
American reader will now see how the circum- 
stances of Ireland have made it necessary that 
the land law should be different in that country 
from what it is elsewhere. 

In 1879 Ireland was once more face to face with 
a crisis. The failure of the potato crop threat- 
ened to bring about a renewal of the dreadful 
scenes which had been enacted in 1846 and 1847 
and the following years ; and Parnell had thus 
been compelled to take apparently extreme steps 
for the purpose of rousing the country to a sense 
of its dangers. The country had responded to 
his call; and when in 1880 the Tories at last 
gave it an opportunity of pronouncing its voice, 
452 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 453 

it at once showed that Parnell represented its 
views ; that his pohcy was its poHcy ; and that the 
men it wanted to send into Parhament were men 
who would follow his methods and adopt his 
plans. But the country and Parnell — as so often 
had happened before — were not in a position to 
give full effect to their wishes. Parnell had to 
fight the election with limited resources ; there 
was the same difficulty about candidates as in 
1874; and Parnell, besides, had not been able to 
get home until the elections had already been 
three weeks in progress. The result of it all was 
that while the country was perfectly sound and 
of one mind and one heart, the representatives 
chosen were of very heterogeneous material. 
Some of the old Whigs who had degraded and 
demoralized the party were again in the National 
ranks, and thus there were two sections at the 
very start ; honest and independent men, who had 
gone into politics purely with a view to serve the 
cause of Ireland without fear or favor or affec- 
tion ; and the dishonest and the half-hearted and 
the office-seeking, mainly concerned with what 
they could make out of Irish politics for their 
own miserable selves. 

The two sections were not long in coming into 
collision. The leader of the Irish party is se- 
lected every year. Indeed he is not called leader 
officially at all. His real title is chairman of the 
party ; and the chairman is chosen like all the 



454 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

Other officials of the party at the beginning of 
every ParHamentary session. Mr. Shaw had 
been chosen in succession to Mr. Butt; and when 
the party met in DubHn it had to decide the ques- 
tion whether or not Mr. Shaw would be re-elected 
to the position. Mr. Shaw since this time has 
fallen upon evil days. Let him then be spoken 
of kindly and considerately. The defects of Mr. 
Shaw were those of the head rather than those 
of the heart. He was sincerely anxious for the 
welfare of Ireland and for the triumph of the 
Home Rule cause. A stout, easy-going man, with 
an amiable temper and a not very active mind, he 
was of opinion that a little soothing talk and 
amiableness of action would bring round every- 
body to the reasonable way of thinking ; and that 
thus the bitter Orange Tory would join in the 
chorus of approval to the legislation which de- 
creased his rents and annihilated his power. Mr. 
Shaw, to put it briefly, believed in the gospel of 
mush. Such a man was plainly unsuited for the 
battle on which Ireland was about to enter. The 
moment was comino- when Ireland was either to 
fall back into landlordism, rack-rent, eviction, 
starvation, or to go forth to a future of independ- 
ence, prosperity and tranquil labor. On the side 
of the landlord was the British Empire. Fleets, 
armies, judges, juries, jails — all these agencies of 
government were at the disposal of the landlord 
caste. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 455 

Nevertheless at this vital juncture the easy- 
going Mr, Shaw was very near being appointed 
leader. The different men who had been elected 
were at the time personally unknown to each 
other. When they entered the Council Chamber 
of the city of Dublin, where this great gather- 
ing was taking place, they had had no oppor- 
tunity whatever of meeting in consultation and 
of exchanging ideas and preparing a united line 
of action. Some of them, indeed, who were most 
favorable to the claims of Mr. Parnell were sup- 
posed to be hostile. 

Nor had Mr. Parnell himself taken any trouble 
to put forward his claims. It is the singular 
fortune of this extraordinary man to have ob- 
tained all his power and position without effort 
on his part, and apparently without gaining any 
particular pleasure from his success. He had 
been down in the country on the night before the 
meetinof, and did not reach Dublin until morning. 
Up to that time, Mr. Parnell had not seen any of 
even his own friends. But some of them had 
met on their own hook ; had talked over the 
situation ; and had in a general way adopted a 
line of action. This was to put forward, and if 
possible to carry, Mr. Parnell as leader. The 
gentlemen who formed this nucleus for the meet- 
ing of the following day were : Messrs, John 
Barry, Comins McCoan, Richard Lalor, James 
O'Kelly, Mr. Biggar and T. P. O'Connor. Mr. 



456 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

Healy was not then a member of Parliament; 
but he was Mr. Parneli's Secretary, and he was 
present at the meeting. Some of these gentle- 
men met Mr. Parnell the next morning in the 
street, as he was on his way to the city hall. He 
did not receive the proposal that he should be 
elected very cordially. His own idea was, and 
remained till an advanced period of the meeting, 
that Mr. Justin McCarthy should be elected ; as 
being a man extreme enough in opinion for the 
Parnellites, and moderate enough in counsel for 
the followers of Mr. Shaw. 

A debate of some length took place, with the 
final result that twenty-three voted for Mr. Par- 
nell, and eighteen for Mr. Shaw. The Lord 
Mayor of Dublin, Mr. Edmund Dwyer Grey, 
presided over the meeting at its start. When 
the election was over there was an interval. 
After this Mr. Parnell quietly took the chair. 
Thus simply Mr. Parnell was installed in the 
great position of Leader of the Irish people. 

The English papers did not take much notice 
of the election at the moment ; but it was felt 
that the Imperial Parliament would be met in a 
spirit of uncompromising demand that might 
lead to great events and to stormy times. Be- 
fore the meeting the Irish members had con- 
cluded to discuss the land question ; and at once 
it became apparent that there were differences of 
opinion that might lead to an ultimate split be- 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 457 

tween the two sections. Mr. Shaw could not get 
beyond the old demand for the " Three F's ; " 
and insisted that this should be the battle-cry of 
the new party. But some of the followers and 
friends of Mr. Parnell insisted that the time had 
past for dealing with the Irish question on these 
lines, and that a bold move should be at once 
made towards the proprietorship of the soil by 
the peasantry of Ireland, as by the peasantry of 
France and Belgium. 

When the party came to London, another, 
though not at first sight a very serious, difference 
of opinion arose. As the result of the general 
election, Mr. Gladstone had come back with a 
splendid majority. The fight had taken place on 
the foreign policy of England — and especially on 
its policy in the East and in Asia. Ireland was 
not mentioned often, though Lord Beaconsfield, 
with characteristic unscrupulousness, had at- 
tempted to get a majority on an anti-Irish cry. 
The Liberals were uncommitted so far as Ireland 
was concerned, but there was a general under- 
standing that a Ministry which contained such a 
man as Mr. Gladstone would be inclined to view 
the demands of Ireland with favor. However, 
the Parnellites knew that a Liberal Ministry has 
dangers as well as advantages. The tribe of 
Irish office-seekers was already on the watch, and 
it was quite possible that before very long it 
would be offering its mercenary service to the 



458 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

Ministers. In that way the party would be de- 
moralized ; and Ireland once more would be 
hopeless because betrayed. 

These and other considerations underlay the 
question which now came to be discussed between 
the different sections of the Irish party ; that 
question was where the Irish members should 
take their seats. It should be explained to the 
American reader that in the House of Commons 
the rule is for the party in power to take its 
place on the right of the Speaker's chair. When 
the Liberals are in power they are on the right 
of the Speaker. When the Tories come in they 
pass over to the opposite side, and sit on the 
left of the Speaker's chair. The right is the 
Ministerial, the left the Opposition side of the 
House. The benches on each side are divided 
about half down by a passage ; this passage is 
known in Parliamentary phraseology as the gang- 
way. Hitherto the Irish members had sat on the 
benches below the gangway on the opposition 
side of the House. There could be no objection 
to this course as long as the Liberals were out of 
power ; then the Irish were naturally a part of 
the general opposition to the Tory Ministers. 
But the Liberals were now in office ; they were 
sympathetic ; and the question rose whether the 
Irish members should, by remaining on the op- 
position side of the House, make open declara- 
tion of opposition to them as to the Tories. The 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 459 

Parnellites gave "Yes" as the answer to this 
question ; the section led by Mr. Shaw answered 
" No." 

An American reader at first sight will perhaps 
be inclined to smile at the importance attached to 
this apparently trivial point; but there were im- 
portant issues underneath the question of the 
seats. The Government was friendly to Ireland, 
and no Minister had kindlier intentions than Mr. 
Gladstone. But the Ministry and Mr. Gladstone 
were the creatures of the political forces around 
them; and in 1880, as in every year since the 
Union, the wishes of Ireland were on one side 
and the political forces of England pretty solid 
on the other. Ireland wanted a radical, almost 
a revolutionary change in the Land laws ; she 
wanted equally a radical if not a revolutionary 
change in the relations of the two countries ; 
and to these changes the majority of Mr. Glad- 
stone's supporters were just as inimical as the 
bitterest Tory. If Ireland, then, were to pursue 
Radical ends she must come into collision with 
Mr. Gladstone and the Liberal Ministry, painful 
as that might be. If, on the other hand, the in- 
terests of English parties and not those of Ire- 
land were to be considered supreme, the Irish 
would be justified in taking their places among 
the Liberals. The Parnellites thought — and 
events proved the justice of their views — that 
it was impossible to serve the God of Irish 



460 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

rights and the Mammon of English parties. 
Mr. Parnell and his friends resolved to remain 
in opposition ; Mr. Shaw and his followers sat 
among the Liberals like good Ministerialists. 
One of the consequences foretold by Mr. Par- 
nell of this action soon came about. Before 
long Mr. Shaw found place after place become 
vacant beside him ; his friends had sold them- 
selves for place and pay. 

Another and more important of the prophecies 
of Parnell was also realized before long. His con- 
tention was that between the demands of an Irish 
Nationalist party and the will of an English Lib- 
eral Ministry there would come irreconcileable 
differences that must lead to hostile collision. 
The very opening day of the session proved 
this. It will be remembered that the Land 
question had reached a very acute stage in Ire- 
land. The farmers once more were demanding 
the protection of their lives and property from 
the destruction brought upon them by plunder- 
ing landlords, and the country had just narrowly 
escaped from the jaws of famine. At the very 
moment, indeed, when Parliament met there were 
still 800,000 men and women in the receipt of re- 
lief from the various funds raised by charitable 
organizations throughout the world. But, never- 
theless, all this tragedy had not come to the 
knowledge of the English authorities ; and the 
Imperial Parliament were as ignorant of it all as. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 453 

if it had never existed. The knowledge in Eng- 
land on the question was confined to a vague im- 
pression that there was some distress in Ireland, 
but then that odious and tiresome country was 
always more or less in distress ; and there was a 
strong impression that Mr. Parnell had made 
very violent and wholly unjustifiable speeches. 
Of course all this simply meant that the farmers 
were once again putting forward claims that no 
British Ministry could possibly consent to ; that 
wicked agitators were stirring up the people to 
impossible demands ; that murder was walking 
abroad through the country; and that if anything 
were wanted in Ireland it was a new Coercion 
Bill by which the Irish people could be brought 
to a condition of good sense and good temper. 

Meantime it may be as well to pause here for 
a moment and hear from the Irish people them- 
selves what it was that they demanded. In April 
of 1880 there had taken place a convention in 
Dublin of the Land League, and there the follow- 
ing platform of Land reform had been laid down : 

To carry out the permanent reform of land ten- 
ure we propose the creation of a Department or 
Commission of Land Administration for Ireland. 
This Department would be invested with ample 
powers to deal with all questions relating to land 
in Ireland, (i) Where the landlord and tenant 
of any holding had agreed for the sale to the 
tenant of the said holding, the Department would 



464 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

execute the necessary conveyance to the tenant 
and advance him the whole or part of the pur- 
chase-money ; and upon such advance being made 
by the Department such holding would be deemed 
to be charged with an annuity of £^ for every 
;,^ioo of such advance, and so in proportion for 
any less sum, such annuity to be limited in favor 
of the Department, and to be declared to be re- 
payable in the term of thirty-five years. 

(2) When a tenant tendered to the landlord 
for the purchase of his holding a sum equal to 
twenty years of the Poor Law valuation thereof 
the Department would execute the conveyance 
of the said holding to the tenant, and would be 
empowered to advance to the tenant the whole 
or any part of the purchase-money, the repay- 
ment of which would be secured as set forth in 
the case of voluntary sales. 

(3) The Department would be empowered to 
acquire the ownership of any estate upon tender- 
ing to the owner thereof a sum equal to twenty 
years of the Poor Law valuation of such estate, 
and to let said estate to the tenants at a rent 
equal to ^}4 per cent, of the purchase-money 
thereof. 

(4) The Department or the Court having juris- 
diction in this matter would be empowered to de- 
termine the rights and priorities of the several 
persons entitled to, or having charges upon, or 
otherwise interested in any holding conveyed as 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 465 

above* mentioned, and would distribute the pur- 
chase-money in accordance with such rights and 
priorities ; and when any moneys arising from a 
sale were not immediately distributed the Depart- 
ment would have a right to invest the said moneys 
for the benefit of the parties entitled thereto. Pro- 
vision would be made whereby the Treasury could 
from time to time advance to the Department such 
sums of money as would be required for the pur- 
chases above mentioned. 

The doctrines laid down in this programme 
were afterwards in the main adopted by the Im- 
perial Parliament, but not until there had been a 
vast amount of fierce struggling and bitter suf- 
ferinor. 

This platform formulated demands for the per- 
manent settlement of the land problem. Mean- 
time there was a point which demanded attention 
and immediate legislation. What was to be done 
with the people whom the disastrous failure of the 
crops made incapable of paying the rents ? It was 
now that the defects of the Land Act of 1870 
came out more clearly than ever before. A vast 
proportion of the Irish tenants were at the mercy 
of the landlords, and the landlords were merciless. 
Evictions were going on all over the country. 
The mass of poverty and hopeless misery was 
being daily increased, and if the landlords were 
allowed to go on at the present rate, there was 
fair chance of a national disaster. To all these 



466 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

things the reply of the Government was a^Dsolutely 
nothing. The Queen's speech contained para- 
graphs upon all possible subjects, and with regard 
to almost every nation in the Queen's dominions, 
but of Ireland not one word. 

It was discovered that upon the Irish Land 
question the Queen's speech was a perfect reflex 
of the state of mind among the Queen's ministers. 
On the question of Ireland the ministerial mind 
was a blank. Mr. Gladstone is too frank a man 
not to reveal to the public at some time or other 
the workings of his mind. Speaking four years 
afterwards to his constituents in Midlothian, he 
used the following remarkable words : 

" I must say one word more upon, I might say, 
a still more important subject — the subject of Ire- 
land. It did not enter into my address to you, for 
what reason I know not ; but the Government 
that was then in power, rather, I think, kept back 
from Parliament, certainly were not forward to 
lay before Parliament, what was going on in Ire- 
land until the day of the dissolution came and the 
address of Lord Beaconsfield was published in 
undoubtedly very imposing terms. ... I frankly 
admit that I had much upon my hands connected 
with the doings of that Government in almost 
every quarter of the world, and I did not know — 
no one knew — the severity of the crisis that was 
already swelling upon the horizon, and that 
shortly after rushed upon us like a flood." 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 457 

This certainly is one of the most astonishing 
confessions that were ever made by a Minister, 
and it throws as much Hght as any other speech 
of Mr. Gladstone upon the vexed question as to 
whether the union of the Legislatures is good for 
England or for Ireland. Of all the Ministers that 
ever reigned in England, there has never been 
one of more voracious reading or more restless 
activity or who more nearly approached to om- 
niscience than Mr. Gladstone. He could speak 
of a passage in Homer, a poem of Dante, a con- 
ceit of Voltaire ; of a forgotten passage in the 
history of Greece or in the discoveries of Sir 
Robert Peel ; he can discourse upon the deepest 
secrets of theology and the highest problems of 
statesmanship or the smallest points of detail, 
such as railway fares and freight rates, with equal 
ease and with equal command. Yet here was a 
great national tragedy taking place in Ireland, 
with all the attendant horrors of a mighty national 
convulsion, and Mr. Gladstone, the Prime Minis- 
ter of England, within three hours' reach of Ire- 
land by steam, was absolutely ignorant of every- 
thing going on there. That one fact alone was 
one of the most potent arguments that could be 
used in favor of removing Irish affairs from the 
mercy of English incapacity. 

The Irish members immediately after they 
heard the Queen's speech found themselves face 
to face with a question of dispute about the seats 



468 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

in the House of Commons. Were they to be 
patient with the Ministry, to consult its ease and 
its interests and to postpone the pressing de- 
mands of Ireland until such time as ministers 
might consider opportune and convenient? It 
was held that such a course would be a betrayal 
of the interests and the hopes of Ireland. In the 
face of a tragedy so terrible, of sufferings so keen, 
as were racking Ireland it was decided that delay 
was death, and that it was their duty as Irish 
representatives to press forward the claims of 
Ireland without the least regard for anything save 
Ireland's supreme agony and mighty need. Ac- 
cordingly they at once proposed an amendment 
to the Queen's speech insisting that the Land 
question of Ireland required immediate dealing 
with. Their demands were regarded either as 
wicked or ridiculous. Here was a Ministry just 
come into office scarcely warm in its place and 
with difficulties to encounter and errors to amend 
in all parts of the world ! But the reply of the 
Irish members was that if there were an Irish 
Parliament the voice of Ireland would demand 
and would receive immediate attention ; and that 
it was not the fault of Ireland that an overworked 
Ministry and a Parliament with all the world to 
survey had the sole control of Irish interests 
and Irish fortunes. . . . Mr. Shaw joined the 
Government in its policy ; and so the division 
between the two sections of the Irish party 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 469 

widened to an impassable chasm, and from this 
time forward they rarely if ever kept together. 

The amendment to the Queen's speech was of 
course lost, but the Irish party were not yet done 
with the question. They immediately brought in 
a bill the objectof which was to suspend evictions 
for a certain period until Ireland was able to re- 
cover from the stunning blow of the ruined 
harvest. The bill by some miracle was allowed 
to escape blocking and came before the House 
of Commons at two o'clock one morning. Mr. 
Gladstone saw now that the question could no 
longer be avoided, asked for a postponement of 
the Irish Bill, and in a few days afterwards 
announced that the Government themselves were 
prepared to deal with the question which this 
bill raised. And thus within a few days after the 
opening of Parliament the Parnell party had 
gained an important victory ; and instead of 
Ireland beinor without attention or without relief 
it was placed in the forefront of the Ministerial 
programme. 

This was the way in which the measure known 
as the Disturbance Bill was brought into being. 
This bill gave the power to County Court Judges 
to suspend evictions in cases where, owing to the 
distress, the tenant was unable to pay the exist- 
ing rent. The bill led to fierce discussions — the 
landlord party on both sides of the House oppos- 
ing it vehemendy. In the end it passed through 
27 



470 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

the House of Commons ; but when it got to the 
House of Lords it was rejected by an overwhelm- 
ing majority. It had not gone through the House 
of Commons, however, without extorting from 
Mr. Gladstone some very remarkable words with 
reeard to the state of Ireland. Thus he brouo^ht 
out clearly the relentless cruelty of the landlords. 
" If," he said on this subject, " we look to the total 
numbers we find that in 187S there were 1,749 
evictions; in 1879 2,607; and, as was shown by 
my right honorable and learned friend, 1,690 in 
the five and a half months of this year — showing 
a further increase upon the enormous increase 
of last year, and showing in fact unless it be 
checked that 15,000 individuals will be ejected 
from their homes without hope, without remedy 
in the course of the present year." " By the fail- 
ure of the crops during the year 1879 the act 
of God had replaced the Irish occupier in the 
condition in which he stood before the Land Act. 
Because what had he to contemplate ? He had 
to contemplate eviction for his non-payment of 
rent; and, as a consequence of eviction, starva- 
tion ; and it is no exaggeration to say, in a coun- 
try where the agricultural pursuit is the only pur- 
suit, and where the means of the payment of rent 
are entirely destroyed for a time by the visitation 
of Providence, that the poor occupier may under 
these circumstances regard a sentence of eviction 
as coming, for him, very near a sentence of 
death." 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 47I 

Very remarkable consequences followed from 
the rejection of the Disturbance Bill by the House 
of Lords. There were 15,000 people about to be 
evicted from their homes — about to have decreed 
against them by the landlords sentences of death. 
The tenant was left, therefore, to use Mr. Glad- 
stone's words again, "without hope, without 
remedy." 

The Government on their side ought never to 
have brought in the bill, or else, having brought 
it in, ought to have staked their existence as a 
government upon it. For a while it seemed that 
the man mainly responsible for the government 
of Ireland would adopt this course. Mr. Forster 
declared that if the landlords continued to evict 
starving tenants he should feel it his duty to come 
to Parliament for some protection for the tenants, 
and, if that were not afforded, to resign his office. 
But Mr. Forster was a man bold in word and 
weak in action. In a few days afterwards he was 
assailed by the Tories, and he withdrew his words 
and laboriously explained them away. This was 
the state of affairs when the memorable recess 
of 1880 opened. One thing the government had 
done was to appoint a commission to inquire into 
the question, and especially into the operation of 
the Land Act of 1870. Mr. Parnell had now one 
of the most perplexing problems that he has ever 
faced in his whole public career. The Irish leader 
knew that if he were to attempt to take the place 



472 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

of the law he ran the risk of bringing both the 
people and himself into collision with the au- 
thorities, and a collision might defeat the whole 
movement and throw it back once more into the 
slough of hopeless despond. At the same time 
the people must have protection. It is a wonder- 
ful testimony to his skill, his exhaustless resource, 
his unfailing nerve, his infallible judgment, that 
he was able to conduct his campaign and at the 
same time to preserve the tenants against the 
evils by which they were threatened and to keep 
them all the while out of the meshes of the Brit- 
ish law. He preached again and again the gos- 
pel that what the tenants were to look to was not 
the British Parliament. He pointed out how that 
body had over and over again cheated Irish hopes, 
and how In its present constitution it was incapa- 
ble even with such a Minister as Mr. Gladstone 
of carrying out really acceptable reforms. The 
result was that the Land League became a mag- 
nificent organization with a membership almost 
conterminous with the farming population of the 
country. In this way the Irish people were 
brought to such a position that the landlords and 
not the tenants became the suppliants, and the 
tenants were able to approach Parliament, not 
with whines upon their lips, but with defiant de- 
mands. 

The uprlsal of slaves against ancient despotism 
is always accompanied by a certain amount of 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 473 

crime, usually of a brutal character. The revolu- 
tion of 1880 had not escaped the general fate, but 
on the whole it was singularly free from grave 
offence. There was never in Irish history a pe- 
riod in which there was so much distress, so much 
excitement, and so little crime side by side. But 
the landlords had managed to get hold of the 
always hostile London press. Every offence, no 
matter how small, was reported at full length, and 
the English people were led to believe that Ire- 
land at the moment was a pandemonium. 

Mr. Forster went backwards and forwards be- 
tween England and Ireland during this period. 
He was very greedy of applause and newspaper 
eulogy, and was deeply influenced by the attacks 
that were universally made upon his administra- 
tion in Ireland. In the Cabinet itself there was 
division of opinion. The Radicals were opposed 
to coercion, and the Whigs were rather favorable 
to it. During one of the struggles a very char- 
acteristic incident took place, which will show how 
the whole question of Ireland and its fate is dealt 
with in imperial councils. There was a struggle 
on the first day of a Cabinet meeting that lasted 
two or three days. Mr. Forster was very mild 
with regard to the state of Ireland, and repre- 
sented that the accounts in the newspapers were 
grossly exaggerated, and that the country was far 
from being in as bad a state as people on the 
Eng^lish side of the channel were led to believe. 



474 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

The next day he represented Ireland as a pande- 
monium, and hoarsely called for coercion. The 
struggle ended in a drawn battle. In the mean- 
time Ministers were left in a painful state of sus- 
pense, and the majority of them held their peace. 
The newspapers all the time kept howling louder 
and louder. Their lies and exaggerations were 
not corrected by official and authoritative denials. 
Judgment against Ireland was, in fact, allowed to 
go by default, the result of which was that the 
demand for coercion became almost unanimous. 
Mr. Forster allowed himself to be carried away. 
He was able to bring forward in favor of his de- 
mand an argument and a fact that seemed irre- 
sistible to men unfamiliar with the real state of 
affairs. Coercion had been refused to him in the 
September of 1880. The outrages in that month 
were only 167. In October also there was a 
struggle against him. The outrages then were 
only 286. But in November he was able to point 
to the fact that they had risen to 561, while in 
December they reached 867. The tide of crime 
apparently kept rising every hour. 

The first step was taken in a new policy by 
bringing an action against Mr. Parnell and sev- 
eral of his colleagues for conspiracy. The only 
conspiracy in which Mr. Parnell had been engaged 
was that of saving the tenants, whom Mr. Glad- 
stone had described as without hope and without 
remedy, as lying under sentences of eviction 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 475 

almost equivalent to sentences of starvation, and 
of endeavoring to raise to the dignity of freedom, 
prosperity and manhood a class whose awful suf- 
ferings for centuries have been described in the 
preceding pages. It is scarcely necessary to say 
that no properly chosen tribunal of Irishmen 
would pass any verdict upon Mr. Parnell except 
that of having been, at a most dangerous crisis, 
the best friend of his country; and the trial, after 
winding its slow length along for many weeks, 
ended in disagreement of the jury. 

In January, 1881, Parliament was called to- 
gether, nearly a month earlier than was usual, in 
order to give the Government time to pass 
measures of coercion. It was well known that 
the Irish party would meet these proposals with 
obstinate resistance and would prolong the strug- 
gle to the very uttermost limits the rules of the 
House would allow. The struggle began on the 
very first night of the session. The Irish mem- 
bers resolved to engage in the debate on the 
Queen's speech as long as they possibly could. 
Four amendments were proposed in succession, 
and each amendment was discussed at extraordi- 
nary length. The Parnell party numbered but 
thirty-five members, and of these but a small pro- 
portion were practised speakers. It thus came to 
pass that, at most, a dozen men had to keep the 
Imperial Parliament at bay for night after night, 
and for week after week. At last the debate on 



476 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

the Queen's speech was allowed to be closed, and 
Mr. Forster had an opportunity of proposing his 
Coercion Bill. The first step in the House of 
Commons is to obtain leave to introduce a meas- 
ure and have it printed. This stage, on most oc- 
casions, is not the subject of prolonged debate or 
of division. But the Parnellites were resolved 
that not a single point should be surrendered 
without resistance, and they therefore raised a 
debate of great length upon the introductory 
stage of the bill. Meanwhile a very extraordinary 
occurrence had taken place. Mr. Forster had 
carried his point by arguments drawn from the 
vast increase in the number of crimes in the 
months of October, November and December. 
These startling totals had broken down the wav- 
ering purpose of the Cabinet, and had them solid 
for coercion. But it soon appeared that when 
Mr. Forster presented his totals he at the same 
time gave no information as to how they were 
made up. His colleagues and the public gen- 
erally assumed that when Mr. Forster spoke of 
561 crimes in November and 867 in December, 
he was speaking of serious crimes — murder, high- 
way robbery, shooting with intent to kill, mutila- 
tion of cattle and other offences of the same kind. 
Mr. Forster had, in introducing the Coercion 
Bill, given a number of the serious offences — and 
some of the offences were very brutal indeed — 
and left the impression upon the mind of every- 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 477 

body that these were typical instances. When, 
however, the Blue Book came to be presented, in 
which the crimes were given in detail, it was dis- 
covered that a number of these terrible crimes 
were nothing more serious than threatening let- 
ters sent by foolish or mischievous persons. An 
examination of the outrages provoked shouts of 
laughter. Thus the very first outrage that stood 
on the Blue Book for the month of October was 
as follows : A portion of the front wall of an old 
unoccupied thatched cabin was maliciously thrown 
down, in consequence of which the roof fell in. 
Another outrage was the breaking of a wooden 
gate with stones. Another, the breaking of sev- 
eral panes of glass in an unoccupied house. The 
sixth outrage reported from County Derry ran, 
"Three perches of a wall maliciously thrown 
down." The hundredth in the West Riding of 
the County Galway was, "A barrel of coal-tar 
maliciously spilled." It was further discovered, 
on looking into the return of outrages, that very 
often one crime, by a process of multiplication, 
was manufactured into four, five, six and seven. 
It was very easy to reach a total of 561 or 2>6'j, if 
offences like these were dignified with the title of 
outrages and were made to perform the same 
operation as the stage army of a scantily manned 
theatre. 

These things were brought before the House 
of Commons by Irish members and by English. 



478 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

Mr. Gladstone looked surprised, bewildered, and 
had to confess that the facts were a revelation to 
him. It was perfectly clear that Mr. Forster had 
obtained coercion by garbled reports and doc- 
tored statistics. But it was too late to go back. 
By this time, too, the resistance of the Irish mem- 
bers had provoked a good deal of passion in the 
House of Commons, and still more outside. The 
Irish members felt bound to defend the liberties 
of their country, thus unjustly assailed, step by 
step, and inch by inch, and English opinion could 
not understand their action. The result was that 
the few Radicals who had been inclined to stand 
by the Irish members in the first instance were 
compelled to desert them under the pressure of 
public opinion, and the Irish party were left to 
fight the batde alone. A number of violent 
scenes took place. The struggle reached a 
climax on Monday, January 31st. The question 
still discussed was leave to introduce the bill. 
The Irish members demanded an adjournment at 
the usual hour on Monday night. It was refused, 
and both sides prepared for an all-night sitting. 
The struggle went on all through the night, then 
all through Tuesday, with many wild and pas- 
sionate scenes. Finally, at nine o'clock on Wed- 
nesday morning, it was brought to a close. The 
Speaker, by an exercise of authority never before 
practised in Parliament, declared that the debate 
had gone on long enough, and closed it on his 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 479 

own will. The Irish members vainly protested, 
and when they found the Speaker determined to 
go on, they left the House in a body, shouting 
" Privilege ! Privilege ! " For a while they de- 
bated whether they should return to the assembly 
or not, but they finally decided that it was their 
duty to fight on. A few hours afterwards there 
came another starding episode in the great strug- 
gle. Just before the House met on Thursday a 
rumor was whispered around that Mr. Davitt had 
been sent back to penal servitude. The Irish 
members were shocked and angered by this 
wretched piece of political vengeance on a politi- 
cal opponent. Mr. Parnell raised the question in 
the House of Commons. He was answered 
curtly, almost insolently. Then he interrupted 
the Prime Minister, was called to order, refused 
to obey the ruling of the chair, and was suspended 
by the Speaker and ordered to leave the House. 
The same thing happened in the case of Mr. Dil- 
lon and of many other Irish members, with the 
final result that the following were suspended: 
Messrs. Parnell, Finigan, Barry, Biggar, Byrne, 
Corbet, Daly, Dawson, Gill, Gray, Healy, Lalor, 
Leamy, Leahy, Justin McCarthy, McCoan, 
Marum, O'Donoghue, the O'Gorman Mahon, W. 
H. O'Sullivan, O'Connor Power, Redmond, Sex- 
ton, Smithwick, A. M. Sullivan, and T. D. Sul- 
livan. 

In their absence on the previous Wednesday 



480 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

leave had been granted for the introduction of 
the Coercion Bill. The measure was still op- 
posed and the Prime Minister brought in rules 
which gave the Speaker the power to close the 
discussion not only on a certain day but at a cer- 
tain hour. Despite of all this, it was not until 
nine weeks from the opening of the session that 
Mr. Forster had passed through the third reading 
of the two Coercion Bills — the one suspending 
the Habeas Corpus, the other authorizing the dis- 
armament of the Irish people. 

It was in the session thus inauspiciously opened 
that the Land Bill of 1881 was introduced. The 
measure was one which would have been accepted 
with frenzied joy in 1852, and which in 1870 
would probably have been accepted as a full and 
final settlement of the question. It granted " the 
three F's," and thus rescued the Irish tenant at 
last from rack-renting and from capricious and 
arbitrary eviction. But the time had passed when 
the Irish would be satisfied with such a moderate 
settlement. The doctrine of obtaining the owner- 
ship of the soil, through the aid of the state, had 
taken a firm hold of their minds, and a bill which 
would have been more than they would have ex- 
pected if they had trusted to Mr. Gladstone and 
the Imperial Parliament alone was less than they 
demanded now that they had an organization of 
their own and an independent Irish party. 

However, apart from the deficiency of the Land 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 481 

Bill of 1 88 1 as a final settlement of the Land 
question, it was most defective with regard to a 
very important point in the immediate future. 
The landlords having exacted impossible rents 
had always the tenants in their debt, and instead 
of acting after the generous and sensible manner 
of landlords in other countries, they had kept 
their debts upon their books in order to always 
retain the tenant in a state of abject depend- 
ence. Some landlords had actually kept out- 
standing against the tenants debts dating from 
1846 and 1847. The tenant was in most cases 
half a year in arrear, and the rent that he thus 
owed left the tenant subject to eviction at any 
hour that the landlord pleased. It may be said 
that the Landsdowne estate had a bad eminence 
in this respect as in many others. It is perfectly 
clear that there was no use whatever in giving 
the tenants fixity of tenure if these detestable 
arrears still remained. The landlords had noth- 
ing to do but to bring an action for ejectment, 
and every tenant who owed a farthing throughout 
the country could be mercilessly evicted. It 
turned out that there were nearly 100,000 ten- 
ants in the country in this position, and thus the 
Land Bill to them was as the Dead Sea fruits 
turned to ashes. These facts were brought again 
and again before the attention of the House of 
Commons, but Mr. Forster refused to properly 
consider them, and the result was that the Land 



482 



GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 



Bill passed in spite of the protest of the Irish party. 
Another and a graver objection was, that the 
Land Courts to which the question of fixing the 
rent would be referred were courts held nearly 
altogether by the nominees of landlords or their 
friends. Lord Selborne, then Lord Chancellor, 
declared that the Land Bill would restore and not 
diminish the value of the landlords' property. 
Lord Carlingford also announced that the pro- 
visions of the bill would cause the landlords no 
money loss whatever. It is scarcely necessary to 
remind the reader that the fact dwelt upon by the 
Irish leaders was that the rent of Ireland was far 
and away beyond the capacity of the Irish tenants 
to pay ; that this rental kept them in a state of 
hopeless poverty, and that, unless therefore there 
were a revolutionary reduction in the rent-rolls, 
the tenants had no chance whatever of reaching a 
condition of prosperity, not even an ordinarily 
decent living. 

These various facts presented to Mr. Parnell 
and his colleagues a very important problem. 
Would they or would they not dissolve the Land 
League ? would they or would they not advise 
tenants to go into the Land Courts? They 
held two conventions in succession ; at those con- 
ventions there was a large party that denounced 
the Land Act, and declared that the only safety 
for the tenant was to keep out of it altogether. 
This party had in their minds the idea that the 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 483 

time had come for a final and decisive conflict 
with landlordism, and that if any time were spent 
in skirmishes or truces the golden opportunity 
would pass. This party had in their minds the 
idea that the proper thing to do was to raise the 
" No Rent " cry ; and in that way to bring the 
landlords to their knees, and so to compel a 
transfer of the ownership of the soil on reason- 
able terms to its tillers and occupiers. Mr. Parnell, 
however, had very serious doubts of the success 
that would attend the No Rent movement — doubts 
that were justified by subsequent experiences. 
He adopted a more cautious policy, and sug- 
gested that the tenants should employ a double 
method. In the first place they should test the 
Land Courts by sending a number of test cases 
before them, and if the courts gave just decisions 
that they should then be encouraged to go on. At 
the same time the organization was to be main- 
tained in its full strength ; and to any person who 
knew the circumstances of Ireland this policy 
would at once be understood. The Commissioners 
of Land Courts, with the exception of the three 
heads of the departments, were officials appointed 
for certain limited periods. Their proceedings 
had to be approved, and could be, and frequently 
were, brought before the Houses of Parliament 
for discussion and criticism. Accordingly the 
acts of the sub-commissioners were subject to final 
review by a tribunal which was almost entirely on 



484 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

the side of the landlords. As a matter of fact, 
the landlords took full advantage of the power of 
reviewing the action of the Land Commissioners 
which the Land Act gave. Every commissioner 
that did anything like justice or any approach 
to justice to the tenant was made the subject of 
question after question to the ministers, and 
when the time came for renewing the terms of 
office all commissioners were dismissed to a man 
who had showed sympathy with the tenant. Mr. 
Parnell therefore properly judged that unless 
there were an immense pressure on the other side 
the Land Courts were sure to do injustice as be- 
tween landlord and tenant. Mr. Parnell, however, 
was not allowed to pursue his policy. The Govern- 
ment, afraid that the Land Act would break down, 
resolved upon a bold stroke. On the morning 
of Thursday, October 13th, 1881, Mr. Parnell was 
arrested under the Coercion Act and was placed 
in prison. Mr. John Dillon, Mr. O'Kelly and Mr. 
Sexton were apprehended immediately afterward, 
and Mr, William. O'Brien, the editor of United 
Ireland, soon followed them. The League was 
suppressed, a "No Rent" manifesto was issued 
in reply, and so there began a fierce struggle 
between coercion on the part of the Government 
and resistance on the side of the people. 



CHAPTER X. 

IN THE DEPTHS. 

THERE now began a fierce and merciless 
war between the Irish people and the Brit- 
ish authorities. Coercion was given full swing, 
and went on its way from excess to excess till 
there was scarcely a method of despotism not 
resorted to. One of Forster's first acts was to 
employ a number of retired or dismissed military 
men to be intrusted with the duty of putting 
down all free expression of opinion. Mr. Clifford 
Lloyd was the very worst specimen of this gang 
— a man of violent temper, of ferocity, and of an 
utter want of scruple. The character of Mr. 
Lloyd may be estimated from the fact that in spite 
of his powerful patronage he had afterwards to be 
withdrawn from Egypt ; his manners were too 
offensive even for the mild Egyptian to endure. 
This ruffian proceeded to make the most reckless 
use of the powers surrendered to him. He ar- 
rested a village almost to the last man ; he insulted 
women in the grossest manner. If they stood in 
the street they were accused of obstructing the 
pathway, or on some other frivolous charge were 
28 487 



488 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

haled before a magistrate and subjected to indig- 
nities which in civiHzed countries are reserved for 
the abandoned. Gaining audacity as he went 
along, Mr. Lloyd had brought before him some 
of the best women of the country who had em- 
ployed themselves in bringing succor or in inspir- 
ing courage in the hapless tenants who were now 
abandoned to the mercy of their landlords. 

As far back as Edward III. an act was passed 
the object of which was to put down the vagrancy 
which then flourished. The act was loose in its 
terms so as to be able to catch hold of all tramps 
and prostitutes whom the authorities wished to 
incarcerate. It was under this obsolete act that 
some of the most refined and heroic women of 
Ireland were sent to solitary confinement for 
periods often of six months. Children twelve 
years of age and crying after the manner of chil- 
dren were placed in the dock on the charge of 
endangering the peace of the queen. There is 
in Ireland a popular song known as " Harvey 
Duff" It is a satire of a rather harmless charac- 
ter directed against the police. The singing of 
" Harvey Duff" was raised in these days into high 
treason, and boys and girls who ventured to hum 
it as they passed the sacred form of a policeman 
were first brutally ill-treated — in one case a girl 
twelve years of age was stabbed — and then 
brought before the magistrates. 

In the meantime every newspaper that said a 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 49I 

word against these acts was promptly suppressed, 
and every man who uttered a protest was sent 
to prison. Man after man was seized who had 
no hold on public affection. The gaols were 
crowded, and finally the numbers of persons im- 
prisoned without prospect of trial reached the 
enormous total of a thousand and upwards. 
Evictions at the same time proceeded apace. If 
the Irish people were a foreign enemy at the 
gates, they could not have been assailed with a 
more lavish expenditure of money and force. 
Foot soldiers, cavalry, artillery, commissariat vans, 
blue jackets, vessels of war, to say nothing of 
13,000 armed policemen — all these were placed 
at the disposal of the landlords and assisted in 
driving out starving tenants to the ditch. But 
this odious system did not even bear the fruits 
for which it was intended. Crime, instead of de- 
creasing, doubled throughout the country and 
became daily of a fiercer and more terrible char- 
acter. The Irish people, in fact, were at bay, and 
resorted to those savage methods of reprisal which 
among all peoples are the answers of impotent 
despair to the brutal omnipotence of a despotism. 
In 1880, before coercion came into operation, 
there were eight cases of murder in Ireland and 
twenty-five of firing at the person. In 1881, dur- 
ing the half of which coercion was in existence, 
there were seventeen murders and sixty-six cases 
of firing at the person. In the first six months 



492 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

of 1882, when the regime of coercion was at its 
worst, there were fifteen murders and forty cases 
of firing at the person. The trials showed clearly 
that all serious offences were actually twice as 
many since the introduction of coercion as they 
were before. 

Public opinion in England can stand Russian 
methods of government for only a certain length 
of time, and the accounts of these various epi- 
sodes in government at last began to produce 
a strong reaction. Indeed, the question was 
taken up by the Tory party, and a member of 
that party, Sir John Hay, brought forward a 
resolution denouncing imprisonment without trial. 
Mr. W. H. Smith, an ex-Cabinet Minister, put 
upon the table of the House a resolution setting 
forth a peasant proprietary as the only solution 
of the Irish Land question. Here, indeed, was 
Nemesis with a vengeance ! The contention of 
the Land League and Mr. Parnell throughout was 
that a peasant proprietary was the only solution 
of the Land problem. It was mainly for preaching 
that doctrine that Mr. Parnell and a thousand 
other men had been placed in gaol, and here, 
now, was one of the leaders of the landlord 
party coming forward to declare that Mr. Parnell 
and his colleagues were right. Ministers took 
alarm. None of them were in real sympathy 
with Mr. Forster's regime ; they were doubtful 
of its wisdom, and could not help being convinced 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 493 

of its want of good result. The consequence 
was, that Mr. Parnell was released, and that the 
Government undertook practically to do every- 
thing that he had demanded before his imprison- 
ment. It had been declared, as has been seen, 
by his party, that the Land Act was worthless to 
the vast proportion of the tenants, owing to the 
heavy arrears they owed to the landlords. Mr. 
Gladstone undertook to bring in an Arrears Bill, 
for the purpose of wiping out their debts and 
thus bringing them within the compass of his 
land leofislation. Mr. Parnell and his colleao^ues 
had complained and clearly shown that the clause 
of the Land Act with regard to the improvements 
made by tenants did not sufficiently protect 
the tenants. Mr. Gladstone undertook to amend 
the Land Act of 1881 in this regard. Mr. 
Parnell and the Land League had declared that 
a peasant proprietary was the only practical and 
final settlement of the Irish Land question. Mr. 
Gladstone undertook to establish the principle of 
a peasant proprietary. Finally, Mr. Parnell pro- 
tested against coercion as a method of govern- 
ment. Mr. Gladstone undertook to drop coercion, 
and began by dismissing Lord Cowper and Mr. 
Forster. In fact, every single one of Mr. Par- 
nell's demands was listened to and accepted. He 
and the British Empire had stood in deadly and 
merciless conflict, and unarmed and from his 
gaol he dictated the terms of capitulation to the 
Prime Minister of England. 



494 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

When Mr. Parnell appeared in the House of 
Commons everybody came forward to greet 
him. Treacherous friends and open enemies 
rushed up to shake his hand, and the House of 
Commons bowed before him. Everybody felt 
that almost the last stage in the Irish conflict had 
been reached. A leader who had proved his 
power over the people to such an extent, and had 
achieved so complete a victory over such tre- 
mendous odds, might fairly demand that the 
government of the country should be put into 
his hands ; and, in fact, everybody felt that the 
release of Mr. Parnell meant the speedy advent of 
Home Rule. 

But the evil fortune that has so often blighted 
the Irish cause on the threshold of victory in- 
tervened, and in one day the hopes of Ireland 
were blasted, and the cause of Irish liberty was 
thrown back for years. Lord Frederick Caven- 
dish had gone over to Ireland as the new Chief 
Secretary, and as the bearer of the new message 
of peace to th^ Irish people. He was a man of 
amiable temper, and of high purpose, and well 
fitted in every way to be the medium of recon- 
ciliation. On the very day of his arrival in Dub- 
lin, he and Mr. Bourke, the Under Secretary, 
were assassinated in the Phcenix Park. This was 
on May 6th. It turned out afterwards he was 
unknown to those who killed him, and that his 
death was due to the accidental circumstance of 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 495 

his being alone with Mr. Bourke. The tragedy 
created terrible excitement and anger in Eng- 
land. A cry for vengeance was raised, and the 
Ministry had to bow before the storm, and, hav- 
ing dropped coercion, were obliged once more to 
introduce it. Mr. Parnell was assailed with spe- 
cial bitterness ; and Mr. Forster was once more 
elevated to the position and eminence which he 
had forfeited. In a remarkable passage of his 
evidence by James Carey, a man who played a 
prominent part in the conspiracy, and afterwards 
betrayed his companions, here is an extract 
from his evidence in cross-examination by Mr. 
Walsh: 

Q. When you became a member of the Order 
of Invincibles, was it for the object of serving 
your country that you joined ? A. Well, yes. 

Q. And at that time when you joined with the 
object of serving your country, in what state was 
Ireland ? A. In a very bad state. 

Q. A famine, I think, was just passing over 
her? A. Yes. 

Q. The Coercion Bill was in force, and the 
popular leaders were in prison ? A. Yes. 

Q. And was it because you despaired of any 
constitutional means of serving Ireland that you 
joined the Society of Invincibles ? A. I believe 
so. 

However, England was not in a humor to listen, 
and the Crimes Act was passed in the House of 



496 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

Commons after a vain resistance by the Irish 
members. This act enabled juries to be packed 
and other methods to be adopted by which in 
despotic countries prisoners are cajoled or ter- 
rorized into giving evidence true or false. A 
number of men were put upon their trial before 
juries consisting entirely of landlords exasperated 
by the loss of power and by the crimes committed. 
A number of men were in this way convicted and 
were hanged. A sickening doubt afterwards 
arose as to whether these men were innocent or 
guilty, and this was especially the case with re- 
gard to a man named Myles Joyce. His case was 
debated over and over again in the House of 
Commons, and it is still a question of doubt as to 
whether he was condemned justly. A man named 
Bryan Kilmartin was sent to penal servitude on 
a charge of having shot at a man with intent to 
murder. The judge declared emphatically that 
the man was guilty beyond all doubt. Attempt 
after attempt to have his case investigated failed; 
but finally the matter was brought before the 
House of Commons. It was proved that a man 
who had gone to America immediately after the 
crime, and who had on his death-bed confessed to 
the offence, was the real culprit, and Bryan Kil- 
martin, proved innocent, had to be released. 

In Parliament all this time the Irish party op- 
posed as strenuously as they could the ministry 
of Mr. Gladstone. They thought that the pro- 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 497 

ceedings in Ireland were entirely unjustifiable. 
For a long time they voted steadily on all critical 
occasions against the Ministry, with the result 
that they more than once endangered its exist- 
ence. The influence which the Irish party was 
able to exercise over these divisions is worth con- 
sidering under present circumstances, when the 
enemies of Ireland seem to be once more in a 
majority. The Liberal party at the start num- 
bered 351, and then, besides, they had the con- 
stant support of 23 Home Rulers who had de- 
serted the Irish party. The Tories, on the other 
hand, had only 238, and the Home Rulers num- 
bered about 2,7' The Government thus were 374 
against 275 — a majority of 99. Yet on a division 
on the Cloture resolution the Government major- 
ity was reduced to 39. On one of the votes this 
majority was reduced to 28; on another it was but 
14, and finally, on June 8, 1885, the majority en- 
tirely disappeared, and the Government was left 
in a minority and had to resign. Before this time, 
however, the Government had passed two meas- 
ures of the utmost importance to Ireland. They 
had reduced the franchise, and in this way had 
raised the electorate from a quarter of a million 
to three-quarters of a million. They at the same 
time swept away by the Redistribution Bill a num- 
ber of the small and rotten boroughs. The re- 
sult of it was that the mass of the Irish people 
bad for the first time an opportunity of making 



498 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

their views known, and of returning a really united 
party to Parliament. 

The advent of the Conservative Government 
produced some excellent changes. Shrewd ob- 
servers say that a weak Conservative adminis- 
tration is, of all others, the most radical. De- 
pendent for existence on the mercy of the Liberal 
Opposition, it brings forward liberal measures, and 
these measures, instead of being opposed and ob- 
structed by the Liberal Opposition, are supported 
and accelerated. Then a Conservative ministry 
has always the House of Lords at its disposal. 
Whatever bill a Conservative minister advocates, 
the House of Lords accepts. On the other hand, 
a Liberal ministry, desirous of passing any reform, 
has to have at its back a tide of almost revolu- 
tionary passion in order to overcome the obsti- 
nate resistance of the Tory Opposition. And so 
it happened in 1885 with the Tory Government. 
The Tory party is the party of landlords and of 
coercion, yet the moment they came into office 
they dropped all mention of coercion. They even 
promised an inquiry into some of the cases of 
alleged miscarriage of justice. They passed a 
Laborers' Act, which enabled the laborers of 
Ireland to obtain better house accommodation. 
And, above all, they passed a large bill for the 
purpose of transforming the rent-paying occupier 
into a peasant-proprietor. 

The general election came in the November of 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 499 

1885, and it was the desire of the Irish party to 
bring into power a weak Conservative government 
dependent for its existence upon the Irish party. 
They contended that such a government would be 
wilHng to give Ireland Home Rule, and that if 
only it could make up its mind to do this it could 
pass the measure without any of the friction or 
passion which would accompany similar proposals 
on the part of the Liberals. They received 
abundant proofs that the Tories were disposed to 
grant Home Rule. Lord Carnarvon, then Tory 
Lord-Lieutenant for Ireland, sought and obtained 
an interview with Mr. Parnell, and the Tory 
minister and the Irish leader were practically 
agreed that Home Rule was just and necessary. 
Lord Randolph Churchill gave abundant indica- 
tions that his views were the same, and expressed 
in private his firm conviction of both the justice 
and the certainty of Home Rule. These private 
expressions of views were confirmed by the omis- 
sion in all the public speeches of the Tories of 
any hostility to the claims of Ireland, with occasion- 
ally a vague hint that these claims should not be 
summarily dismissed. The result of all this was 
that at the polls there was an alliance between 
the Tories and the Irish voters in England. This 
alliance secured the Tories a large number of 
seats, but not sufficient to give them a chance of 
carrying on the government. They were in a 
large minority, but they had in their own ranks 



600 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

twenty or twenty-five Orangemen of the nar- 
rowest type, who would have deserted them the 
first moment they indicated an intention to deal 
justly with the claims of Ireland. There was an 
internal struggle in the Cabinet, with the result 
expressed by Lord Randolph Churchill with cynic 
frankness : " I have done my best for you and 
have failed; and now, of course, I shall do my best 
a:,^ainst you." Lord Carnarvon, a conscientious 
man, resigned office. The Tory party resolved 
to abandon the hopeless task of keeping a govern- 
ment together, and on January 26th announced 
that they would bring in a bill for land purchase, 
and a bill for suppressing the National League. 
They knew, when making this announcement, 
that they would compel a hostile vote that night 
against them on an amendment brought forward 
by Mr. Jesse Collings in favor of what is known 
as the policy of three acres and a cow. Their 
anticipations were realized ; they were defeated, 
and Mr, Gladstone was called upon to form a 
ministry. 

In the debate on the amendment of Mr. Jesse 
Collings little had been said about Ireland, but it 
was very well known that Ireland was the 
subject which was really under discussion. An 
extraordinary impetus had been given to the hopes 
of Irish patriots by certain events. During the re- 
cess and the election a paragraph appeared in 
several newspapers to the effect that Mr. Glad- 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. gQl 

Stone had come to the conclusion that the con- 
cession of the Irish Parliament should be agreed 
to, and that he was already engaged in working 
out the details of a Home Rule scheme. The 
report was denied with some appearance of au- 
thority immediately afterwards, but the im- 
pression remained on the public mind that Mr. 
Gladstone was ready to deal with the question 
of Home Rule. Upon some people this had a 
most bewildering effect, but to nobody who had 
closely watched Mr. Gladstone's career was this 
announcement so startling after all. As far back 
as 1868 he had declared that Ireland ought to be 
governed more by Irish ideas ; and Home Rule 
is really but the logical development of this 
statement. Over and over again, too, on sub- 
sequent occasions, he had declared that he was 
prepared for an extension of self-government to 
Ireland. On this point he has been assailed with 
a good deal of coarse and unjustifiable vituper- 
ation. But Lord Hartington, who, though he has 
attacked Mr. Gladstone's policy, has always 
acted towards him with scrupulous fairness, has 
acknowledged that Mr. Gladstone's mind has 
evidently been going towards Home Rule for 
many years, and that his present policy could be 
fairly inferred from previous utterances. The 
words, indeed, of a manifesto which he issued to 
the electors immediately before the general 
election contain an exact description of the prin- 



502 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

ciples of the Home Rule Bill which he sub- 
sequently introduced. 

During the election he had called upon electors 
to give him such a large majority as would enable 
him to be independent of the Parnell party. But 
really there is no contradiction between the two 
attitudes. Mr. Gladstone was anxious that Ire- 
land should get Home Rule ; but at the same 
time he did not want Ireland to get such a meas- 
ure of Home Rule as would be dangerous to the 
interests or the unity of the Empire. 

The question was to be dealt with in a spirit 
of fairness to Ireland, certainly ; but as an En- 
glishman Mr. Gladstone cannot be blamed for 
insisting that it should be dealt with in a spirit of 
fairness to England also, and he thought a strong 
Liberal government was better calculated to 
treat the subject with equal fairness to England 
and to Ireland than a weak Tory government. 
Mr. Gladstone may have had in his mind the 
thought that when he proposed Home Rule it 
would produce a considerable amount of dissent 
in the Liberal party, and would certainly be op- 
posed by a considerable number of the members 
of that body. The larger the party the more obvi- 
ously he could afford to shed them, and yet be 
able to carry his bill. 

It is objected by English opponents that he 
proposed Home Rule too soon. It is objected 
by Irish Nationalists that he proposed it too late. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 503 

But a minister is not a missionary nor a propa- 
gandist ; it is his duty to take up questions as 
they arise and to deal with them when they are 
ripe for settlement; and it was not until 1885 
that the Home Rule question was in any degree 
ready for settlement. The Irish people were 
always, in their hearts, in favor of Home Rule ; 
but Ministers can only judge of a people's desires 
by the representatives they choose. It is quite 
true he cannot, to use a phrase once popular in 
America, " go behind the returns." But the re- 
turns in Ireland had certainly not given anything 
like a trustworthy account of the feelings of the 
Irish people. 

There can be little doubt that for a long time 
Mr. Gladstone thought that Home Rule was a 
passing caprice — that a persistence in such good 
measures as he was willing to give would destroy 
the desire to be governed by a Parliament in 
Dublin instead of by a Parliament in Westminster. 

It is but quite recently indeed that any English 
statesman has grasped the central fact of Irish 
politics — that the desire for self-government is in- 
destructible and must therefore finally prevail. 
It is true that in 1874 Mr. Butt came in with his 
60 Home Rulers ; but these Home Rulers were 
most of them what Mr. Gladstone would call good 
Liberals, regarding Home Rule as an extreme de- 
mand, by the leverage of which more moderate 
concessions could be obtained. 



^04 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

In 1880 a considerable section of that party 
sat upon the same benches as Mr. Gladstone's 
own followers, and were as docile to the com- 
mands of the Whip as any Liberal. Gladstone 
at the same time might point to the fact that the 
Parnellites were but a small section of the Irish 
representation ; that at the beginning of the Par- 
liament of 1880 there were but little above one- 
third of the full total of 103 Irish members, and 
that at no time did they exceed more than forty- 
five, and this was considerably below one-half of 
the full number of Irish representatives. When, 
however, they claimed altogether eighty-five out 
of 103, there could be no doubt that when they 
demanded to be regarded as the mouthpiece 
of Irish views, they made the claim good, and 
thus justified Mr. Gladstone in regarding the de- 
mand as coming from a united nation. However, 
the more violent opponents he had made were 
not prepared to listen to any defence of his con- 
duct. There came upon him a terrific cyclone of 
political hatred. All the London journals, with 
one exception, daily poured upon him a stream 
of poisonous abuse. He was denounced as a 
Judas who had sold his country to the dynamiter 
for a temporary occupation of the Premiership. 
He found in his own party some of his most bitter 
assailants. Lord Hartington had broken loose 
from him, and had previously, when the reports 
of his readiness to concede Home Rule were cir- 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 507 

culated, declared that he would have no part 
whatever in granting such a boon. Mr. Bright 
had stood alone for some years, having differed 
with the Prime Minister on the Egyptian war, and 
was hostile to Mr. Gladstone's new departure. 
Mr. Chamberlain was still more hostile. At one 
time he had been regarded as one of Ireland's 
most vehement supporters, and as ready to go 
farther than Mr. Gladstone himself on the path 
of concession. During the long struggle on co- 
ercion within the Cabinet in the days of Mr. 
Forster, Mr. Chamberlain was always spoken 
of as one of those who had resisted those pro- 
posals to the very last. It came as a startling 
revelation to the world that Lord Spencer, after 
his trying personal experiences in Ireland, had 
joined Mr. Gladstone in the opinion that Home 
Rule was the only settlement of the Irish difficulty. 
Mr. John Morley had been known as an out- 
spoken friend of Ireland for many years, and 
during the election campaign had used language 
which clearly proved his favorable attitude to- 
wards the principles of Home Rule. Mr. Goschen, 
another prominent Liberal, on the other hand, 
proved to be a rampant enemy to the Irish cause. 
It was amid these difficulties with open foes and 
dissenting friends that Mr. Gladstone assumed 
office once more, in January, 1886, and started on 
the greatest, the most glorious enterprise of his 
life. 

29 



CHAPTER XI. 

THE GREAT HOME RULE DEBATE. 

BEFORE entering on a description of the 
scenes which took place in the House on 
the Home Rule Bill in 1886, it will be well to 
give a rapid sketch of the principal persons en- 
gaged in the mighty struggle, and first of all let 
us endeavor to give a portrait of Mr, Gladstone. 
Mr. Gladstone is marked, physically as well as 
mentally, for a great leader. He is about five 
feet nine inches high, but looks taller. His build 
is muscular, and but a very short time ago he was 
able to take a hand at felling a tree with young 
men. There was a time when he was one of the 
most skilful of horsemen. He is still a great 
pedestrian, and there scarcely passes a day that 
he is not to be seen walking. He walks with his 
head thrown back, and a step firm and rapid. 
His countenance is singularly beautiful. He has 
large, dark eyes, that flash brilliantly even in his 
age. Deep set and with heavy eyelids, they 
sometimes give the impression of the eyes of a 
hooded eagle. He has a large, exquisitely-chis- 
elled nose. The mouth also is finely modelled, 
608 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 509 

The head is unusually large. It was in early 
youth covered with thick, black hair. The brow 
is lofty and broad, and very expressive. The 
complexion is white almost as wax, and gives the 
face a look of wonderful delicacy. The face is 
the most expressive in the House of Commons. 
It reflects every emotion as clearly and rapidly as 
a summer lake its summer sky. When Mr. 
Gladstone is angry his brow is clouded and his 
eyes shine. When he is amused his face beams. 
When he is contemplative his lips curl and his 
head is tossed. His air is joyous if things go 
well, and mournful when things go ill ; though 
when the final trial comes and he stands con- 
vinced that he must meet absolute and resistless 
defeat, he looks out with dignified tranquillity. 

All the passions of the human soul shine forth 
by his look and gesture. His voice is powerful, 
and at the same time can be soft, can rise in 
menace or sink in entreaty. Allusions have been 
made to the vast and heterogeneous stores of 
learninof which are in this sincrje man's brain. He 
has extraordinary subtlety of mind, so that he 
is able to present a case in a thousand different 
lights. And it is this faculty that has sometimes 
given him the unpleasant and undeserved repu- 
tation of sophistry and of duplicity. He speaks 
as a rule with considerable vehemence and ges- 
ticulates freely. To speak of him as the first 
orator of the House of Commons is to eive a 



510 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

very inadequate statement of his position. Over 
and over again in the course of his career he has 
turned a battle, when he was seemingly just 
beaten, into a victory ; and nobody is ever able to 
say how things will go until Mr. Gladstone has 
first spoken. Lord Beaconsfield up to the time 
of his death presented to the people a contrast 
and a counter attraction. The late Tory leader 
was a poor charlatan at bottom, but he was a bril- 
liant and a strong-willed man that had passed 
through a romantic and picturesque career. 
With the death of Lord Beaconsfield passed 
away the last man who could venture to be 
brought into rivalry with Mr. Gladstone, and so 
he stands alone as the last survival of a race of 
giants. His effect thus upon people outside of 
Parliament is almost as great as upon those who 
are inside its walls. There seems to be some- 
thing so lofty and pure in his purpose that men 
follow him with something of fanaticism. The 
restlessness of his energy produces equally 
earnest work for his followers, and his own exhaust- 
less funds of enthusiasm and sunny optimism 
make other men passionate strugglers for the 
right. The hand of Gladstone has changed the 
map of Europe, and first really gave birth to the 
Christian nationalities in the East which are now 
emerging into freedom and light after ages of 
dark thraldom under the Mussulman. In addition 
to these things he is credited with immense parli- 
amentary skill. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 511 

He began his advocacy of Home Rule with an 
extraordinary prestige. The difficulties were felt 
to be gigantic, dangerous pitfalls to be everywhere 
around ; but men had faith in the star of Glad- 
stone, and he had faith in it himself also. His 
nerve never fails. Physically he is one of the 
very bravest of men, and he has never been 
known to show, under any circumstances, the 
least sign of physical fear. Whatever might take 
place in the coming contest, one thing was certain : 
Mr. Gladstone having once put his hand to the 
plow would not turn back until he had guided it 
to its ultimate destination. 

Mr, John Morley was the most remarkable 
man of the Ministry, next to Mr. Gladstone, and 
was regarded as a most important champion of 
Home Rule. Mr. Morley affords one of the first 
instances in recent years of great political 
triumphs won by a hterary man. He was in 
Parliament a little over three years when he was 
selected for a Cabinet office, a rapidity of promo- 
tion almost unparalleled. He had, however, 
already given strong proofs of his fitness for 
high political office. For years he had occupied 
a foremost place among English writers on po- 
litical and philosophical questions. The son of a 
hard worked professional man, he started out 
with few advantages, was poor, and has remained 
poor. He was educated at Oxford, and afterwards 
spent some time on the continent. His first ap- 



512 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

pointment of importance was as editor of the 
Morning Star — a journal of a robust radicalism 
that taught justice to Ireland at a time when 
these doctrines were not fashionable ; and he was 
successor in this position to Mr. Justin McCarthy. 
After 1867 Mr. Morley was appointed editor of 
the Fortnightly Review, a periodical which is 
known all over the world for its extremely high 
value as a collection of writings from the eminent 
men on all the profound problems of the present 
da}^ Mr. Morley produced book after book, 
dealing with the prominent figures of the French 
Revolution, a period that he had profoundly 
studied. Of those best known are the biog- 
raphies of Voltaire and Rousseau. There are 
scarcely any two biographies in the English 
language more delightful to read. The style is 
clear, but full of fervor and of glow. The biog- 
raphy of Rousseau, especially, is more like a 
brilliant romance than a description of a man 
who really lived and moved upon the earth. 
Anybody can, even in his busiest or darkest 
hours, sit down and devour page after page of 
the splendid narrative. The Fortnightly Review 
contained occasional essays on economical and 
other subjects from Mr. Morley's pen. He was 
one of Mr. John Stuart Mill's earliest disciples, 
and did much to propagate Mill's philosophy. In 
1880 the Pall Mall Gazette changed both pro- 
prietors and policy. From the mouth-piece of 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 517 

Jingo Toryism it became an organ of staunch 
radicalism, and Mr. Morley was its first editor in 
this new character. As long as he held the po- 
sition the Pall Mall Gazette was the best journal 
in London. Mr. Morley had been among the first 
among Englishmen to pierce the heart of the 
Irish mystery. Years and years ago he had 
made up his mind that the only possible solution 
lay in the direction of some acceptance of the de- 
mand for self-government. He had not expressed 
this opinion obtrusively, for he is a man of 
cautious temperament; but he had sown the 
seed judiciously, and led his readers gradually 
to the conclusion that Home Rule was just and 
inevitable. Then he entered the House of Com- 
mons for Newcastle-on-Tyne — a constituency con- 
sisting mostly of toilers in great iron-works or 
in mines. His radicalism exactly suited such a 
constituency. 

He was not long in Parliament before he took 
up a prominent position. He was opposed to the 
Egyptian expedition, and to the whole Egyptian 
policy of the late government. He is a man of 
transparent honesty of purpose, and of a political 
courage ready to face any emergency, and to 
attack even his own friends in order to see riofht 
triumphant. The definiteness of his opinions on 
the Irish question naturally suggested him as the 
best man to carry out the policy which Mr, Glad- 
stone had now set his mind upon. It was no 



518 GLADSTONE-PARNELL. 

surprise, therefore, to the world that when the 
Ministry was made up he was chosen for the 
important post of Chief Secretary. In ParHament 
Mr. Morley has not yet reached the full height of 
his abilities. He has all the qualities that make 
a great debater. His language flows from him 
smoothly and with perfect clearness. Nobody 
can ever have the least doubt as to what he 
means. His diction, too, while it scorns all mere- 
tricious ornament and seeks out simple and 
familiar phraseology, shows all the elevation of a 
great master of style and a fine scholar. 

The defects of Mr, Morley are those which 
arise from want of training and experience. He 
entered Parliament at a comparatively late period 
of his life. This gives to his style a certain want of 
that suppleness required in an assembly where men 
have to learn all the arts of ready fence. Some- 
times he suffers from over-careful elaboration of 
his speeches, and this is considered a grave defect 
in the House of Commons. That assembly is not 
particularly patient of scholars or of philosophers, 
and loathes professors ; and in any assembly men 
are most effective when they speak with the 
greatest spontaneity. 

Parliament is like journalism ; it wants, above 
all other things, actuality — the incident, the opin- 
ion of the hour. The future of Mr. Morley in 
English politics can be a great future if only he 
himself will so elect. His honesty is implicitly 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 519 

believed in ; no one denies the brilliancy of his in- 
tellect or the soundness of his judgment. In man- 
ner he is modest, never capable of being provoked 
into the insolence of success or the dictatorship 
of position. The one great obstacle, perhaps, to 
Mr. Morley's reaching the highest of all positions 
is himself. He is, like many other literary men, 
characterized by grave and wholly unjust self-dis- 
trust, and there is a dash of pessimism in his tem- 
perament, as there is a good deal of pessimism in 
his creed. He has none of the keen appetite for 
power, the proud enjoyment of small triumphs, the 
joy of a masterful temperament in moving men 
as pawns on the board. 

Mr. Morley is about the middle height, and very 
spare. His face is long, with clearly marked fea- 
tures, lined here and there, but on the whole re- 
markably young-looking. His eyes are of a gray- 
ish-blue, and are calm and thoughtful. Mr. Mor- 
ley has not a trace of asceticism in his character, 
but his looks are those of a man who cares little 
for the table, but a good deal for spiritual possi- 
bilities. 

The mention of Mr. Morley's name suggests 
that of Mr. Chamberlain. By many events of the 
last years these two men have been placed in 
contrast, and, to a certain extent, in rivalry. One 
of the many motives assigned for the strange 
vagaries of Mr. Chamberlain is his jealousy of 
Mr. Morley as a future rival. The feelings be- 



520 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

tween the two men are more bitter perhaps than 
those between any other two men of the same 
party. Mr. Morley and Mr. Chamberlain were 
for years close personal friends. Mr. Chamber- 
lain was the person who gained most by the alli- 
ance. In 1874 he was still in Birmingham ob- 
scurity — a man successful in business, it was true ; 
an alderman, afterwards the mayor of the town. 
But provincial reputations travel slowly to Lon- 
don, and when they reach there are despised. In 
1874 Chamberlain stood for Sheffield as an 
avowed Home Ruler, and professed sentiments 
much in advance of general opinion at the time 
upon the question of Ireland. He was not suc- 
cessful. He wrote an article in the Fortnightly 
Review, which was a wild attack upon the mani- 
festo with which Mr. Gladstone had grone to the 
constituencies. Mr. Chamberlain probably thought 
the best way to elevate himself was to attack 
those more prominent than he. The article sug- 
gested the subject of a leader to the Daily News, 
in which Mr. Chamberlain was treated by no 
means tenderly, and in which his opinions were 
ridiculed as the outpourings of a pretentious 
upstart. But Mr. Morley stood by his friend. 

In time Mr. Chamberlain was elected to Parlia- 
ment, and started by proposing a ridiculous scheme 
of licensing. Then he brought himself into 
prominence by attacks upon the Tory Govern- 
ment of the day, and by something like an open 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 521 

quarrel with the Marquis of Hartington, then the 
leader of the Liberal party. This was the period 
when Mr. Parnell was makino- his crusade ag^ainst 
flogging in the army and navy. Mr. Chamberlain 
at the time was one of Mr. Parnell's warmest ad- 
mirers, and he was one of the few Englishmen 
who regarded the policy of obstruction as justified 
by the circumstances of Ireland. In the agita- 
tion ag^ainst " the cat " he saw a good elec- 
tioneering cry, and he went in for it zealously 
and vehemently. Meantime he put himself at 
the head of a great election machine — a con- 
trivance hitherto unknown in English politics. 
Up to this time candidates had been allowed to 
come before constituencies without consultincr 
anybody — or, at any rate, after consultation with 
a few leading men. The system had its faults, but 
it also had its virtues, for it safeguarded the ab- 
solute freedom of the electors and of candidates. 
Mr. Chamberlain and his friends determined to 
establish a system of associations throughout the 
country which had the choice of candidates after 
the manner of an American convention. These 
associations were then federated together, and 
their head-quarters were placed at Birmingham. 
Mr. Chamberlain was the main spring and the 
controlling force, and in this way he raised him- 
self to the position of a great political power. 
Contrary to the expectations of everybody he 
was raised to the presidency of the Board of 



522 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

Trade when Mr. Gladstone came to make his 
Ministry. He did nothing in office to justify his 
elevation, for he is almost entirely devoid of con- 
servative statesmanship. He brought in a Bank- 
ruptcy Bill and passed it, but this was his solitary 
achievement. 

Up to the breach with Mr, Gladstone a few 
months ago he steadily advanced in popular fa- 
vor. He has all the instincts and all the abilities 
of the demagogue. He appeals to the greed, to 
the needs, to the passions of the masses. His 
gospel to them is a gospel of loaves and fishes. 
Durinof the strugfale between the House of Lords 
and the House of Commons on the question of 
the franchise, he openly incited to violence, with 
the result that a meeting where Sir Stafford 
Northcote and Lord Randolph Churchill were to 
attend was broken up by gangs of roughs. To 
agricultural laborers he has offered the bribe 
known as " three acres and a cow," and to the 
artisans of the towns he has spoken in vague 
language of their right to a larger amount of 
money without taking any trouble to point out 
the means by which their condition was to be 
bettered. He has assailed the landlords as men 
" who toil not, neither do they spin ; " but he has 
been very merciful towards capitalists, having 
himself acquired a fortune of nearly ten millions 
by manufacture. Apart from his well-known 
methods of gaining popular applause, he has a 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 523 

fine platform style. His manner is hard, and his 
language is not particularly elevated, and has a 
crispness that is very like pertness. But his 
speeches are clear, and sometimes exciting and 
full of the suppressed passion. In the House of 
Commons, too, he is a ready and a powerful de- 
bater. The very defects of his mind and of his 
character often lend force to his utterances. He 
is narrow, and shallow, and bitter ; and then he is 
able to entertain his audience with those merci- 
less personal hits, those shallow appeals which 
are nearly always more successful with a popular 
assembly than statesmanlike observations. Then 
the fierceness of his temper gives you an idea of 
a man whom it is dangerous to cross, and this 
produces a strong impression upon an audience 
which respects power above everything else. His 
temper also gives force to his utterances, because 
his selfishness makes him feel his own view of a 
case so deeply as to enable him ' to give it that 
vehement utterance by which men are moved. It 
would be hard to say, even in this apparently 
dark hour of his fortunes, that he has not a great 
future before him ; but the greatness of his posi- 
tion will be the danger of his country. He is a 
combination of the worst qualities that were ever 
possessed by a Minister. He has a violent tem- 
per, a masterful will, a shallow judgment, a 
changeful purpose. Believing himself always 
right, and yet constantly changing his opinions, 



524 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

he forces men to adopt his particular views or 
openly quarrels with them. His appearance in- 
dicates to a large extent his character. He is a 
man of a very powerful frame, and is able to take 
liberties with it that show immense physical 
vigor. He eats and drinks generously, though 
not too much. He smokes all day long, and 
never takes any exercise. After a heavy dinner 
he is able to eo down to the House of Commons 
and sit in the sweltering atmosphere for hours 
without any visible harm. He has a long, thin 
face, with a large nose slightly turned up. This 
gives a perky air to the countenance, and the 
perkiness is largely increased by that single eye- 
glass which has made the stony British stare an 
object of dislike to all mankind, 

Mr. GoscHEN plays an important part in the 
events that follow and deserves separate notice. 
He is German, and we believe Hebrew by de- 
scent. He certainly has an extremely Hebrew cast 
of countenance — Hebrew of the low and mean and 
not of the lofty and handsome type. The first 
impression of his face is certainly very sinister, 
and suggests a pettifogging provincial attorney 
rather than a statesman. His features are some- 
what vulpine. The eyes are small and appear 
smaller from the nearsightedness that keeps them 
nearly always half closed. The hair is gray, the 
side whiskers are gray, and the complexion is a 
curious gray also — not pallid, not yellow, and 



THE (IREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 525 

not ruddy, but simply a dull white-lead gray. He 
usually sits in a crouching position with the side 
of his face turned to the House, the whole air 
of the man suggesting pettiness and meanness. 
His voice is a more unpleasant characteristic 
still. The utterance is thick and guttural and 
throaty, and his speech is like a croak. His de- 
livery, besides, is most ungainly. He shifts himself 
about like a windmill, fiddles with his ring, and 
the sound of his voice is an affliction. At the 
same time he is unquestionably a man of great 
intellectual power, but it is the power of criticism, 
not of construction. He can make a very damag- 
ing attack upon a measure or a policy, couched 
in unpretentious but at the same time vividly 
strikinof lano-uaQre. He has none of the shallow- 
ness or recklessness of Mr. Chamberlain, but he 
has never been successful in construction, and 
the counter-policies he has proposed have usually 
been laughed out of court. He has the reputation 
of being wealthy, but how that wealth was acquired 
it were as well perhaps not to inquire too closely. 
He began life as a member of the great financial 
firm of Friihling &*Goschen, and that firm had the 
doubtful honor of introducing the Khedives of 
Egypt to the exchanges of Europe, and thus of 
beginning that vast system of useless palaces, 
populous harems, and the importation of ballet girls 
which were the shame and the scandal of Ismail 
Pasha's reign, and which had for their counter- 



526 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

part desolated fields, broken homes, and the 
fellaheen bastinadoed out of their last farthing 
into roofless and foodless wanderers. For many 
years Goschen has played a curious part in Eng- 
lish politics. He calls himself a Liberal, but his 
mind is essentially of a conservative cast. He 
has little confidence in men, not much hope for 
the future, and weighs and balances every reform 
and generally finds it wanting. It is hard to say 
how far his conduct is the result of conviction. He 
is represented as having lost heavily by the atti- 
tude he has taken, but it is hard to see how. His 
refusal to accept the reduction of the franchise in 
the counties as part of the Liberal programme 
prevented his taking office in 1880, but he 
obtained an appointment as special ambassador to 
Constantinople, and thus instead of having to be a 
mere follower and colleague of Mr. Gladstone he 
was raised to the rank of a positive personage 
whose speeches might make or mar ministries. 
Throuofhout his whole career he has been a bit- 
ter enemy of everything Irish. He has loudly 
supported coercion. He opposed reduction of 
the franchise in Ireland, and now he has be- 
come one of the most able of the assailants of 
Home Rule. It is a curious feature of many 
men of Hebrew race that they profess a patriot- 
ism more Jingo than that which satisfies an 
ordinary Englishman. Mr. Goschen has not a 
drop of English blood in his veins ; it is not even 



THE GREAT IRISPI STRUGGLE. 529 

certain that he was born in England, and perhaps 
this is the reason that he has shouted " Rule 
Britannia " with his hoarse croaking voice more 
loudly than anybody else. 

The Marquis of Hartington is a typical Eng- 
lishman, more like the Briton of the drama and of 
the farce than almost any other living man. His 
whole air is one of phlegm. He sits for hours 
in the House without ever changing a look. He 
rarely smiles, he never laughs, and has not often 
during thirty years of Parliamentary life been 
betrayed into losing his temper. His mien is 
haughty and reserved. He is slovenly in dress, 
awkward in air, slouching in gait. He enters the 
House of Commons with the curious knock- 
kneed walk that distinguishes horsey Englishmen 
and with his hands sunk to the lowest depths of 
his pockets. His face is handsome and rather 
distinguished-looking — though a friendly critic 
described his profile as singularly like that of a 
horse. His under-lip is heavy and protuberant, 
and the face is rather too long. He wears a 
moustache and beard, and has a full head of hair 
in which, though he is upwards of fifty, and 
though he is said to have lived in the full sense 
of the word, there is scarcely a gray thread visible. 

Lord Hartington was a very considerable 
period in Parliament before anybody thought 
there was much in him beyond what is called 
"horse-sense," self-control and a certain dignity. 

30 



530 GLADSTONE— PARNELL, 

When in 1875 Mr. Gladstone retired from the 
leadership of the Liberal party there was a wail 
of despair among his followers when the suc- 
cession was handed over to Lord Hartington, 
and everybody was of opinion that the only 
thine to be said in his favor was that he was the 
son of a duke. For some time after his accession 
to his new position, Lord Hartington realized the 
worst anticipations, and the contrast between his 
lumbering and ungainly style and the bright and 
epigrammatic agility of Mr. Disraeli opposite was 
painful and humiliating to the Liberal party. His 
delivery is certainly most trying. He speaks in 
a curious falsetto voice, and beginning his sen- 
tences at a top note he gradually descends to a 
deep basso, until in the end it is nothing but in- 
audible gutturals. This rise and fall goes on 
with a damnable iteration that makes life a wear- 
iness. There is a story told that somebody came 
up to Lord Hartington once and asked him 
whether it was true that he had yawned in the 
middle of his own speech. "Well, I suppose I did," 
answered Lord Hartington. " Wasn't it damned 
dull ? " As time went on, however, he im- 
proved immensely, and when the days of his 
leadership were over he certainly had made a 
fine record. When people manage to get over 
the trying part of his delivery, it is discovered 
that he expresses himself very clearly and some- 
times with great force. For a good, hard-hitting 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 53I 

Speech he is the equal of almost any man in 
the House of Commons. According to some 
critics he is a lazy man, who does not care about 
anything, and regards politics, like most things 
in life, as a hideous and disgusting bore. Ac- 
cording to others, this apparent indifference is but 
a mask for a really keen and eager interest, for a 
strong feeling upon most debatable questions, 
and for an ambition slowly burning but still per- 
sistent. On the Irish question, unfortunately, 
he was not without personal prepossessions. 
He is said to have been very strongly attached 
to his brother, Lord Frederick Cavendish, the in- 
nocent and hapless victim of the Phoenix Park 
assassination. Beside this, he is deeply interested 
in Ireland owing to the possession of property 
there. The manner in which this property came 
into the hands of his family is one of the many 
disgraceful chapters in the history of Ireland. 

Sir George Otto TREVELYAN'is a man generally 
popular among Liberals for courtesy and agree- 
ableness of manner, and grace, elegance and ami- 
ability of speech. By Irishmen he is not so well 
liked, as he is supposed to hide a good deal of 
personal venom underneath his agreeable ex- 
terior. He is the nephew of Lord Macaulay, and 
the heir of a good deal of his talents. He has 
the gifts and the deficiencies of a literary man. 
His speeches are clear and agreeable, but at the 
same time smell too much of the lamp. He 



532 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

writes beautifully, and some of his works are 
among the gems of English literature. He is 
not a man of much force. His nerves broke 
down under the strain of the Chief Secretaryship 
of Ireland ; his face grew haggard and his beard 
whitened in a few months. This sad experience 
seems to have soured his nature, and he has ever 
since been among the most vindictive enemies 
of Irish rights. 

The Marquis of Salisbury is undoubtedly en- 
titled by commanding talents to the position of 
Prime Minister. He is, next to Mr. Gladstone, 
the most interesting figure in the political life of 
England. In intellectual endowments, in culture, 
in loftiness of speech and of aim, he stands far be- 
yond most if not all other competitors for public 
favor. And yet it may be doubted if in any but a 
country governed by speakers he would be se- 
lected for the position of First Minister. He has 
the besetting vice of parliamentarians: he is the 
slave, not the master, of words ; and words do not 
always carry to his mind definite images of facts, 
and forces, and things. In this respect the Mar- 
quis of Salisbury is more like Mr. Gladstone than 
any of Mr. Gladstone's own associates. But the 
Marquis of Salisbury has a craze for antithesis, 
and a genius for epigram ; while the man has yet 
to be born who remembers one epigram out of 
Mr, Gladstone's oratory. In dealing with foreign 
nations Mr. Gladstone may say and has said some 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 535 

terribly imprudent and injurious things about 
powers who have had the choice afterwards of 
doing- England and Mr. Gladstone a good turn or 
an ill turn ; but Mr. Gladstone's amplitude pf 
language and excess of qualifications have pre- 
vented his denunciations from being readily and 
portably remembered. The Marquis of Salis- 
bury, on the other hand, has the unhappy knack 
of putting his attacks into a compact form that 
makes them more difficult to foro-et than to re- 
member. The difference in the effect of the im- 
prudent utterances of the two men is the difference 
between getting a sousing from a tub and being 
stabbed by a poisoned stiletto. 

When the career of the Marquis of Salisbury 
comes to be considered, it will be found that many 
of his mistakes as a politician are due to his train- 
ing as a journalist. The training of the journalist 
is in many respects the best ; in some, it is the 
worst for the man who takes afterwards an active 
part in politics. The writer at his desk is essen- 
tially removed from contact with his fellow-men ; 
and thus it is that the timid man becomes brave 
with his pen, the gentle sanguinary, the wavering 
decided. The journalist, accustom.ed to write in 
the privacy of his own closet, gets a habit of 
thought independent of the feelings of other 
people ; and it is the power of considering, and 
regarding, and working through the feelings, and 
sensibilities, and passions of other men that make 



536 GL ADSTONE— PARNELL. 

up a great part of the equipment of the practical 
poHtician. 

It is still more unfortunate for the Marquis of 
Scklisbury that the journal on which he received 
his early training should have been the Saturday 
Review. A man could not be one of the leading 
v;rriters for such a journal for many years without 
taking away some distinct traces on his style. 
The Marquis of Salisbury is often nothing more 
nor less than the unregenerate Sahtrday Reviewer. 
The disregard for the opinions of others ; the im- 
patient rush to the unpopular rather than the 
popular view ; the love of antithesis ; the straining 
after pointed and bitter ways of saying things ; 
the slavery to form rather than matter — these are 
the relics of years spent in the weekly grinding 
out of articles which had the irresponsibility of 
anonymity ; and which looked at everything from 
the standpoint of culture, correcting and despis- 
ing the prejudices and ideals of the crowd. It is 
an unfortunate thing when the journalist, trans- 
formed into a politician, can play by epigrams 
with such chainless forces as armies and ironclads, 
international rivalries, and the murderous hatreds 
of race. 

What makes the fault worse is the probability 
that the effect of much of what Lord Salisbury 
says is more surprising to himself than to any- 
body else. His "commercial illustrations" might 
go near provoking a bloody conflict between two 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 537 

of the greatest powers of this earth ; but the 
phrases dropped naturally from the lips of a jour- 
nalist in a weekly newspaper. Those who have 
Lord Salisbury's acquaintance describe him as 
courteous and considerate in manner, reasonable, 
and kindly in judgment. His pen is more bitter 
than his tongue, and his tongue a good deal more 
bitter than his mind. 

Another grave obstacle to the success of the 
Marquis as a leader of the new and omnipotent 
democracy is that, in all probability, he has not 
yet attorned in his heart to the democracy. He 
belonged for years to the clique of brilliant men 
who made war on the multitude ; the hauteur of 
the scholar and of the writer rather than of the 
aristocrat was at the bottom of his political faith. 
His hostility to the Household Suffrage is well 
remembered. In the course of debates he made 
comparisons between the term of residence re- 
quired for artisans and the term of imprisonment 
compulsorily gone through by a person convicted 
of crime. His refusal for years to be reconciled 
to Mr. Disraeli was due, it may well. be supposed, 
not to personal dislike alone, but because the 
Conservative leader had lowered the political life 
of England by admitting the greater part of its 
citizens to a share in their own government. 

Lord Randolph Churchill has made advances 
more rapidly than almost any politician of his 
time. There was probably not one member of 



538 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

the Parliament of Lord Beaconsfield who had the 
least conception that the member for Woodstock 
would ever have amounted to anything like an 
important figure in the House of Commons. In 
that Parliament of nearly six years he spoke three 
or four times, and the speeches were not promis- 
inof of a future. On one occasion he made a 
speech in defence of a hopelessly rotten corpora- 
tion ; on another he attacked Mr. Sclater-Booth 
with a freedom that shocked sober men ; and his 
third notable performance at this period was a 
speech made in Dublin, which, in the echoes that 
reached London, seemed to extenuate the ob- 
struction of Mr. Parnell and Mr. Bigfaar at the 
moment when their heads were demanded by the 
universal voice of England. His political appear- 
ances, in short, were regarded as part of an eccen- 
tric and reckless nature, that found everything 
else in life more interesting than its serious affairs. 
At this period this was perhaps a not wholly un- 
just estimate. His ignorance certainly at the 
time was appalling. 

The fall of the Beaconsfield Ministry was his 
rise. Those who can look back at the aspect of 
the two parties can alone form a fair estimate of 
the work Lord Randolph Churchill and his asso- 
ciates have done for the Conservative party. No- 
body — who, new to Parliamentary life, had his 
powers of observation fresh and keen — can forget 
the mournful contrast between the appearance 



J 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 539 

and the demeanor of the victors and the van- 
quished after the great electoral struggle of 1880. 
The Liberals overflowed on their benches; all the 
names that had been familiar for years as the 
leaders of the forlorn hopes of Radicalism had 
found places in the new Parliament. The great 
leader of the party stood one day at the bar, his 
mobile face wreathed in smiles, and with the flush 
of achieved victory, and greater victories to come; 
and the whole party rioted in the sense of its 
omnipotence. On the other side there were 
benches painfully attenuated, and the universal 
look was one of despair. The leaders of the party 
were in worse case than the rank and file. The 
overwhelming defeat at the polls had come upon 
them with surprise ; to bewilderment succeeded 
disgust ; and it was impossible to get them to 
turn their faces from the wall and take up their 
broken weapons. One man suddenly took a 
fancy to rural pursuits; the exigencies of his 
private affairs engrossed the mind of another ; 
they nearly all kept studiously away from the new 
Parliament, and shunned the gaze of their triumph- 
ant enemies. It was in this dark hour that Lord 
Randolph Churchill and his associates in the 
Fourth party took up the work of arresting the 
triumphant chariot of their adversaries. It looked 
hopeless. The disposition of even their own 
side was, for a while at least, to let things take 
their course; and as the country had determined 



540 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

that it was best for it to enter on the path that 
leads to Hades, to let the country have its way. 

The entrance of Mr. Bradlaugh to Parliament 
would, in all probability, have been allowed to 
pass unchallenged had it not been for the vigilance 
of Lord Randolph ; through his efforts it was that 
the member for Nordiampton was refused ad- 
mission ; that the subject was gradually trans- 
formed from the contest between the convictions 
of a single member to a great ministerial ques- 
tion. Then the bills of the Ministry were op- 
posed clause by clause, even line by line ; and it 
soon came to be seen, that by the dexterous use 
of the forms of the House — by constant attend- 
ance, by steady, hard work, three or four men 
could act as a drag on a party with a hundred 
majority. I am not expressing approval of the 
tactics of the Fourth party. In carrying on this 
work Lord Randolph ran great risks. He was 
exposed to the charge of obstruction ; was howled 
at by the ministerial rank and file; denounced by 
ministerial orators ; laughed at and menaced, and 
even included in the same category with the fol- 
lowers of Mr. Parnell. But he took no notice of 
these attacks, went on his way steadily ; with the 
result that there came to be confidence where 
there had been despair ; acdvity where there had 
been apathy; brisk and constant attendance on 
benches that had yawned in horrid emptiness. 
Nobody took him seriously at this period, not 
even his own side. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE, 54I 

It may be doubted if he had at this time even 
in the ranks of the Liberal party enemies more 
scornful than in his own party. The whole forces 
of the front opposition bench were arrayed against 
him. The squires thought him grossly insub- 
ordinate, and it looked as if he were groinof to 
be cast out of the ranks. He has changed 
all this. His rise in popular favor and in par- 
liamentary influence has been seen growing before 
the universal eye, until now he is perhaps the 
most popular man of his party out of doors, and 
in its parliamentary arrangements he can dictate 
his own terms. 

Justin McCarthy was born in Cork in 1830. 
When he was a boy the capital of Munster could 
really lay claim to deserve the traditional reputa- 
tion of the province for learning. Mr. McCarthy's 
father was one of the best classical scholars of the 
day. There was at that time a schoolmaster 
named Goulding — the name is familiar to many a 
Corkman still — who was a really fine scholar. 
Justin McCarthy was one of Goulding's pupils, and 
when he left school he had the power not com- 
mon even among hard students of being able to 
read Greek fluently and to write as well as trans- 
late Latin with complete ease. Journalism ap- 
peared to him the readiest form of making a live- 
lihood, and, like so many other literary men, he 
began at one of the low rungs of the ladder. He 
had taught himself shorthand, and his first em- 



542 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

ployment was that of a reporter on the Cork Ex- 
aminer. It may be an interesting fact to note that 
his hand still retains its cunning, and that he may 
often be observed taking down on the margin of 
the Parliamentary Order Paper the exact words 
of some important Ministerial statement for quota- 
tion in his leading article. The first important 
piece of work, it may also here be mentioned, 
which Mr. McCarthy was sent to do was to report 
the trials of Smith O'Brien and his colleagues at 
Clonmel. There are two other important remin- 
iscences of Mr. McCarthy's reporting days. He 
was present at the meeting in Cork at which the 
late Judge Keogh swore that oath which played 
so tragic a part in Irish history ; and he was also 
present, we are informed, at the famous dinner at 
which the present Lord Fitzgerald, then a rising 
young lawyer, in the ardor of his patriotism, 
bearded a lord-lieutenant and scandalized an 
audience of Cork's choicest Whigs. It was in 
1847 that Mr. McCarthy started his professional 
life. All that was young, enthusiastic, and earnest 
in Cork shared the political aspirations of that 
stormy time. There had been in existence for 
many years a debating society known as the 
" Scientific and Literary Society," and one of the 
many forms in which the new spirit roused by 
Younof Ireland showed itself was the startino- of 
the Cork Historical Society, as a rival to the older 
and tamer association. Among the members of 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 543 

this body were many young men who afterwards 
rose to importance. Sir John Pope Hennessy, 
now Governor of the Mauritius, and Justin Mc- 
Carthy himself were among its first recruits. The 
Historical Society became a recruiting ground for 
Young Ireland ; nearly all its members joined the 
party of combat, and they founded one of the 
many clubs that were started to prepare for the 
cominof struo'orle. 

Justin McCarthy, in his maturity of philosophic 
calm, can look back to a time when he dreamed 
of rifles and bayonet charges and death in the 
midst of fierce fig-ht for the cause of Ireland. To 
those who know him there is no difference in the 
man of to-day and the man of '48. He has still 
the same unflinchinp- couraofe as then. In this 
respect, indeed, McCarthy is a singular mixture 
of apparent incompatibilities. There is no man 
who enjoys the hour more keenly. He has the 
capacity of M. Renan for finding the life around 
him amusing; enjoys society and solitude, work 
and play, a choice dinner or an all-night sitting. 
He has eminently "a two o'clock in the morning 
courage" — a readiness to face the worst without 
notice. With his fifty-five years he is still a man 
of sanguine temperament ; but in '48 he was only 
eighteen. He naturally, therefore, belonged to 
the section which had Mitchel for its apostle, and 
open and immediate insurrection for its gospel. 
Mitchel was arrested, and no attempt was made 



544 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

to rescue him ; and there were many among the 
companions of McCarthy who saw in this failure 
the death of their hopes, the end of their efforts 
for the Irish cause. Justin McCarthy was not 
one of those. The remainder of this portion of 
his Hfe may be described in the words of his 
son: 

"In that very year (1849), when the EngHsh 
Queen was in DubHn Hstening to the loyal pro- 
tests of citizens, and while she was being assured 
the Young Ireland movement meant nothing, and 
that Ireland was heart and soul devoted to her 
service, in that year a young man came down 
from Dublin to Cork. The young man bore a 
name which is deservedly dear to Irishmen — 
Joseph Brennan. Those who knew Joe Brennan 
are not likely to forget his wonderful dark eyes, 
his brilliant talk, and one of the most National 
hearts that ever beat for Ireland. He came down 
to Cork with the deliberate purpose of trying to 
stir into blaze again the revolutionary fires which 
seemed to have been extinguished when Meagher 
and Smith O'Brien and the others were sentenced 
to transportation. Brennan's plan was simple 
and not unpractical ; and, of course, his purpose 
was revolutionary. His idea was that a number 
of small risings should take place on the very 
same day, hour, and minute, in different parts of 
Ireland; that their suddenness and unanimity 
might serve to distract authority ; that at least 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 545 

there would be a struggle ; that some brave men 
would die for Ireland ; and that something good 
for the country must happen out of that. Let it 
at least be shown to English dominion that there 
were young men in Ireland ready to die for their 
country, and then the world might end, or the 
English rule might grow humane, or any other 
strange and exceedingly unlikely thing might 
come to pass. It was the dream of a young man ; 
and Joe Brennan and his friends were all young 
men. There were a very large number of gen- 
erous, high-souled, pure-hearted young men, 
whose one ambition was to give their lives for the 
sake of their country. There were few young 
men in Cork in 1848 who could not boast the 
possession of a rifle, or a sabre, or a pike ; these 
were hidden away in all sorts of unlikely places — 
buried in back-gardens or put out of sight some- 
how. They only hoped to make a series of des- 
perate efforts, to die gallantly, and by their brave 
deaths to stimulate the national feeling of their 
country, and to convince the oppressor of their 
earnestness of purpose. There were incessant 
meetings of the revolutionary leaders and of their 
followers, organized under the pretence of temper- 
ance meetings, literary associations, and the like. 
There were continual drillings, where the great 
object was to get large bodies of men to obey 
readily the word of command, and to go through 
military evolutions swiftly and silently. They had 



546 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

their passwords — their signs and countersigns. 
When one rising has failed, it is very difhcuk to 
rouse popular passions to the fever-heat of another 
insurrection. Still, with all these difficulties in 
the way, the young men of the new movement 
were determined to go on, and made ready for the 
signal which was to come to them, and which was 
to be the match which would fire the flames of 
rebellion in many parts of the country at the same 
moment. Unfortunately the insurrection did not 
break out simultaneously. There were one or 
two abortive risings in different parts of the coun- 
try. The police were prepared. There was a 
sharp, short exchange of shots, and then the in- 
surrection ended for a time. The little centres 
of conspiracy, that had been waiting for the 
watchword that was to hurl them into action, 
heard with despair of a disaster at Cappoquin 
and the failure of their hopes. There was noth- 
ine further to be done for the moment. Toe 
Brennan made his way to New Orleans. In that 
wonderful city on the Mississippi, which is still a 
marvellous combination of France before the 
Revolution, of tropical Creole life, and of modern 
American enterprise, he founded a newspaper, 
and married — but not the love of his youth. She 
died unmarried. Blindness came upon him, and 
he wrote some melancholy, beautiful verses upon 
the calamity which darkened his life. He died while 
he was still what may be called a young man," 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 547 

With this revolutionary episode ended for the 
time McCarthy's poHtical history, and from this 
period, for many years, his story is that of the 
literary man. It was in the year 1851 that Mr. 
McCarthy first tried his fortunes in London. The 
attempt ended in failure, and he had to return to 
the reporter's place in Cork. There was at that 
time a Royal Commission for inquiring into the 
fairs and markets of Ireland, and the secretary 
having broken down, Justin McCarthy was taken 
on as the official shorthand writer. His aptitude 
was such that some member of the Commission 
urged him to again go to London, and armed 
him with letters of introduction. This was in 
1852. McCarthy again tried his chance, but 
without success. Before he could continue this 
fruitless labor he heard of the Northern Times, 
the first provincial daily of England, which was 
about to be started in Liverpool, applied for a 
situation, and was accepted. 

He was still only a reporter, and even he him- 
self did not yet very well know whether he was 
fitted for better things. The presumption always 
is that the journalist who begins as a reporter 
should be allowed so to continue. But with 
persistent energy McCarthy worked on, gave 
literary lectures, and in the end was allowed the 
privilege of contributing to the editorial columns. 
He remained in Liverpool till i860. McCarthy 
was contended for by several Liverpool journals, 

31 



548 GLADSt(.)NE— I'ARNELL. 

but he declined all offers, fixed in the resolve to 
make or mar his fortune in London. 

The young journalist had at this time a coun- 
sellor who for many years was the chief arbiter 
of his destiny in all the crises of his life. Miss 
Charlotte Allman, a member of the well-known 
Munster family, had come to reside with her 
brother in Liverpool. The two young people 
resolved to marry, in spite of the strong opposi- 
tion of relatives and in the face of frownino- for- 
tunes, and in 1855 they were married. The 
folly of these young people was more truly wise- 
than the sagacity of their elders, for their 
marriage was to both the best and the most 
beneficent event in their lives. To those who 
knew Mrs. McCarthy there is no need to dilate 
on the resistless charm of her truly beautiful 
nature. She never wrote a line; she did not 
even pretend to any literary power ; but she had 
the keen intelligence of sympathy ; she had faith 
in her husband, and she had indomitable courage. 
It was she that induced Mr. McCarthy to refuse 
all the Liverpool offers, and that turned his face 
steadily to the larger hopes of London ; and the 
joint capital of the young couple when they 
landed in London was ^10. 

McCarthy's first London engagement was as a 
Parliamentary reporter on the Morning Star. 
He found time to do other work in the intervals 
of this hard occupation, and tried his hand at an 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 549 

essay for one of the magazines. He had taught 
himself French, German, and ItaUan ; was famil- 
iar with the three literatures ; and his first attempt 
at essay-writing had Schiller for its subject. He 
next tried the Westminster Review, and two 
articles of his in that periodical attracted the 
attention of John Stuart Mill. The philosopher 
was introduced to the young writer, showed a 
friendly interest in his welfare, and helped to 
advance his fortunes. In the autumn of i860 he 
was appointed foreign editor of the Morning Sta7^, 
and in 1865 he became editor-in-chief Those 
who remember the journal and the times when it 
lived will know what splendid service it did to the 
cause of Ireland, and its tone of energetic advo- 
cacy of Irish national claims was largely due 
to the inspiration of the ardent man who was 
then at its head. It was while he was in this 
position that Mr. McCarthy became intimately 
acquainted with Mr. John Bright. In these days 
the ex-minister was fond of spending some hours 
in the office of the Star, in which his sister had 
some shares ; and many an hour did the editor 
and the politician spend together. It is one of 
the unpleasant consequences of the fierce strug- 
gles of the last few years that those two old 
friends have ceased even to speak to one another. 
But in 1868, when Mr. Bright sold out his share in 
the Morning Star, Mr. McCarthy resigned his 
position on the staff of that journal. 



550 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

He then entered on a new and highly inter- 
esting experience. He went to America, where 
an embarrassing choice of offers awaited him. 
He had, while still editor of the Star, published 
his first novel, "Paul Massey," in 1866 — a story 
which Mr. McCarthy has since suppressed. This 
had been followed, in 1867, by the "Waterdale 
Neighbors " — a charming story. One of Mr. 
McCarthy's first engagements was to write a 
series of stories for the '• Galaxy," a literary maga- 
zine in America. America has changed greatly 
since the Irish lecturer went on his first tour, for 
at that period the Pacific Railway had but just 
been completed, and the Indians used still to 
haunt the railway stations in numbers sufficiently 
large to be sometimes dangerous. Mr. McCarthy 
was an extremely successful lecturer, and by 
means of his pen and his tongue found the United 
States a profitable field of labor. He paid a brief 
visit to London in the middle of 1870, returned 
again in the autumn of that year, and finally in 
the autumn of 1871 came back to England. 

Meantime his name had been kept steadily 
before the English reading public. Immediately 
after his return Mr. McCarthy accepted an 
engagement on the Daily News as Parliamentary 
leader writer. For years he was looked up to by 
most of his editorial colleagues as the man who 
took the most rapid and the most accurate view 
of a Parliamentary situation. The work of a 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 551 

Parliamentary leader writer is by no means easy. 
He has to keep abominable hours ; he has to 
watch for hours before he can put a pen to paper, 
and up to a recent period he had to get through 
his task under circumstances of savage inconven- 
ience. But Mr. McCarthy has a singularly robust 
physique, and every night between four and five 
his spectacled and tranquilly philosophic face 
might be seen in Palace Yard with a regularity 
that premiers never attained. His literary for- 
tunes, meantime, steadily advanced ; and in " Dear 
Lady Disdain " he wrote a novel which every- 
body talked about, and upon which there was a 
real run. He soon after devoted himself to a 
very different kind of work, under the title, " The 
History of Our Own Times," the first two 
volumes of which were published in 1878. The 
book took the town by storm. It was, indeed, a 
model of what contemporary history should be. 
Equal justice was dealt out to all parties; the 
portraits of men were clear-cut and sympathetic, 
and the style was evenly melodious without one 
single attempt at rhetoric. The book sold with 
enormous rapidity, and edition followed edition 
in rapid succession. Great as was its success 
on this side of the water, it was still greater in 
America. But the author gained little from this 
enormous American sale, for as yet there is no 
copyright between England and America. His 
old publishers, the Messrs. Harper Brothers, with 



552 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

that fair dealing which charac-terizes all their trans- 
actions, did send him voluntarily an occasional 
instalment, but they told him that if there had 
been an international copyright they could have 
well afforded to have given him ;^ 10,000 for his 
rights. Mr. McCarthy is one of the men who 
does not owe Mr. Parnell anything — as the Irish 
leader would himself be the first to acknowledge 
— but he soon saw that in Mr. Parnell there was 
the real chief of that honest Parliamentary party 
for which he had been vainly looking. To Mr. 
Parnell then he unreservedly gavt his support. 
He was thrown into a prominent position at an 
epoch of fierce and tempestuous passions ; but 
nobody was readier to see, when the time came, 
the necessity for strong action. Occasionally he 
differed from the counsels of younger and less- 
trained men, and there are few of these colleagues 
of his who can look back upon those occasions 
when they ventured to differ from their wise 
counsellor without misgivings. But, whatever 
might be his views, Mr. McCarthy always stood 
by the rule, that in the face of the enemy 
the Irish party should be a unit. He has 
been ready on every emergency to take his 
share of the unspeakable drudgery to which Irish 
members have been subjected, and it imposed a 
greater sacrifice on him than on any other mem- 
bre of the party to face the odium which a part 
in these unpopular labors involved. If the 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 553 

delivery of Mr. McCarthy were equal to his in- 
tellectual powers, he would be amongst the fore- 
most speakers of the House. He is ready ; he 
has clearness of head and calmness of temper ; 
and his ideas clothe themselves in language of 
appropriateness with an unerring regularity. He 
has in more than one debate delivered the best 
speech in point of matter and of form. Mr. 
McCarthy is far superior to any of his party, and 
probably to any man in the House, as an after- 
dinner speaker. He bubbles over with wit of the 
most delicate and playful kind. 

Just as his long struggle was crowned with suc- 
cess, and as he became from the obscure reporter 
the popular novelist, the successful historian, and 
the member of Parliament, the woman without 
whom he would have remained, in all probability, 
poor and obscure to the end, was seized with a 
lingering illness and died. It would be unbe- 
coming to even attempt a description of what 
this loss meant to Mr. McCarthy. He has one 
daughter and one son. They share the political 
opinions of their father, and of their mother, who 
was a strong Nationalist. 

It is acquaintance only with Justin McCarthy 
that can make intelligfible the strong^ hold he has 
over the affections of his intimates. It is not 
often that there are found united in the same man 
modesty and literary genius, a toleration of others 
with a power of absolute self-abnegation, a sane 



554 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

enjoyment of every hour, with the courage of 
calmly facing, for the sake of the right, Fortune's 
worst blow. Moderate in advice when the 
fortunes of his country are at stake, he is always 
boldest when acts involve only personal risk to 
himself. It is this mixture of tenderness, shyness, 
and romanticism with a thoroughly fearless 
spirit, that make him so beloved. 

His son, Justin Huntley McCarthy, has won a 
high reputation for his years, both as a historian 
and as a member of Parliament, although his 
efficiency as a worker has been impaired by feeble 
health. 

Thomas Sexton was born in Waterford in 1848. 
He had not yet reached his thirteenth birthday 
when he entered a competition for a clerkship in 
the secretary's office of the Waterford and Lim- 
erick Company. The post was unimportant; the 
salary small ; but that did not prevent thirty 
youths entering the lists. Of these Sexton was 
the youngest, and Sexton obtained the first 
place. He remained in the secretary's office till 
he was between twenty and twenty-one years of 
age, when he left his native town, drawn to the 
metropolis, like most young men of enterprise. 

The influence of years of dry toil in an office 
is visible in Sexton to-day. He has what is con- 
sidered an un-Irish talent of dealing readily and 
accurately with figures. He used to say that 
figures were "written on his brain." But Sexton 



J 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 557 

had another Hfe besides that of the railway 
official. In his boyhood's days there was still a 
good deal of literary and social activity in the 
Irish provincial towns. These were the days of 
Mechanics' Institutes and of the Catholic Young 
Men's Societies — thinofs in most Irish towns that 
have vanished under the universal miasma that 
has killed alike the things of industry and the 
things of joy. The sight of the silent mill, the 
unroofed cottage, the rotting boat, the disap- 
pearance of the artisan of Dublin, bring the ad- 
vancing desolation of Ireland no more clearly 
home to the mind than the departure of the 
boisterous whirl of the hurling match, of the 
wild gayety of the " pattern," and of the lit- 
erary and other societies in which the people 
of the Irish towns used in happier days to meet. 
Though Sexton and most of his companions in 
arms are still young, they can remember the time 
when, on Sunday evenings at least, there was no 
difficulty about knowing where the hours could 
be passed pleasantly and usefully, and where the 
beginning could be made of acquaintance with 
poetry, history, with the arts of oratory and elo- 
cution, and sometimes even the gentler accom- 
plishments of singing and dancing. 

It was a long time before Sexton discovered 
the real strength of his abilities or his true place 
in life ; and there can be little doubt that he 
might never have become the man he is to-day if 



558 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

he had not been a member of a Catholic Young 
Men's Association and a Mechanics' Institute 
when he was a boy. When he was about sixteen 
he delivered a lecture on Oliver Goldsmith, and 
another on John Banim, the novelist. He showed 
some anticipation of his own future position by 
promoting the formation of a debating club, and 
was, of course, one of the most frequent com- 
batants of this body. He was finally elected 
president of the club, and he held this position up 
to the time of his leaving Waterford. The 
Mechanics' Institute in Waterford, as in other 
Irish towns, was not confined to the class for 
whose benefit such bodies were supposed mainly 
to exist, for among its members were the pro- 
fessional men and merchants of the city. Here 
also Sexton's mind naturally turned to the idea 
of a debating club, and with his co-operation such 
a club was started. The debating society became 
in time one of the prominent features in the life 
of Waterford. 

Meantime Sexton's ideas had been straying 
towards work more suitable to his tastes than 
that of the railway office. And when he was 
twenty-one he at last determined to make a bid 
for better fortunes. It speaks well, not merely 
for Sexton, that even at that early period in his 
career the departure from his native city should 
have been regarded as an event of some impor- 
tance. A public dinner was held in honor of the 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 559 

departing young citizen. Sexton had become the 
centre of a group of able young men, of whom 
two, at least, have since achieved a position of 
importance — Edmund Leamy, and Richard Dow- 
linof, the well-known novelist. Sexton went to 
Dublin with all good wishes, and with the 
strono^est encourao^ement from friends who had 
faith in his future. His start in the Irish capital 
was good, for he immediately obtained a per- 
manent post as a leader-writer in the Nation of- 
fice, from A. ]\I. Sullivan, at that time the editor. 
He contributed regularly his leading articles 
every week to the NatioiuU Jmiryial, and when 
Mr, D. B. Sullivan went to the Irish Bar he took 
up the editorship of the Weekly News. He was, 
for a while, also the editor of Ycnuig Irelajid. 
• Busy with his pen, Sexton took practically no 
part in politics, and had done little to justify those 
promises of oratorical eminence w^hich had been 
given in the debating societies. However, when 
the Home Rule Leacnje was formed, he had eiven 
public proof of the faith that was in him by 
joining its ranks. In 1S79 he was requested by 
the council of the Land League to attend a countv 
meeting at Dromore West, County Sligo. The 
people of the county were quick to discern the abil- 
ities of the unknown young man, and he made, 
from his very first appearance among them, a 
profound impression. Indeed, even after he was 
elected, Sexton was known by Sligo long before 



5(30 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

he was recognized by Ireland generally. Nobody 
could help remarking diat his voice was pecu- 
liarly melodious ; but few had any conception of 
the great things that were in this thin, delicate, 
rather retiring man. 

He was simply a writer — a clever fellow 
enough in his way — able to write a pretty article 
or a nice little story, but, beyond that, nothing. It 
might be desirable, perhaps, that he should be 
run because good candidates were so hard to get ; 
and because his long training in the Nation of- 
fice was some security that he had the right 
opinions. Sexton has, however, established a po- 
sition in the councils of his party and in the 
esteem of the whole Irish race. One of the first 
to discern the commanding abilities of Sexton 
was Mr. Healy, who urgently and constantly 
pressed the claims of his friend. When at last 
Sexton was sent to Sligo his difficulties were not 
at an end. These petty obstacles, however, did 
not come from the masses of the people, many 
of whom had already begun to appreciate the 
real worth of the man with whom they had to 
deal ; and the unknown young writer was elected 
at the head of the poll, above both the Whig and 
the Tory magnates who had previously sat for 
the county. 

Sexton was at last in the arena where his 
abilities had the opportunity of asserting them- 
selves. But even in this position, recognition 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 561 

came to him slowly. During his first session of 
Parliament he remained comparatively unnoticed. 
He was phenomenally constant in attendance ; at 
almost any hour of the day or night he was to be 
found in that seat which he had marked for his 
own, and he was in the habit of putting what was 
considered a very large number of questions. 
But nobody yet had any idea that there was any- 
thing in him above very earnest and very re- 
spectable mediocrity, nor during the recess which 
followed did he advance his position to any ap- 
preciable degree. It was on an evening when 
Mr. Forster's Coercion Bill was under discussion 
that Sexton broke upon the House for the first 
time as a great orator. Mr. Forster did not pro- 
duce the blue book, in which there were the sta- 
tistics of increased crime, until weeks after he had 
committed the Government to coercion, and days 
after he had introduced his bill into the House. It 
was in the dissection of the extraordinary details 
at last produced that Sexton showed his powers. 
The House was, when he rose, but ill-prepared, 
indeed, for such a speech, especially from an 
Irish member ; for of the subject it was already 
sick. The circumstances of the moment tended 
to increase the prevalent depression, for it was a 
dull, dark, dismal evening. The House was, 
therefore, listless, sombre and but thinly filled 
when Sexton rose. He spoke for two hours, 
amid chilling silence, interrupted but occasionally 



562 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

by the thin cheers of the small group of Irishmen 
around him ; and yet when he sat down the 
whole House instinctively felt that a great orator 
had appeared among them. Still, there was no 
particular notice of this splendid effort in the 
newspapers ; it was reported in but a few lines. 
But members talked of it in the lobby and the 
smoke-room ; and, among members of the House 
of Commons at least, his reputation was estab- 
lished. 

Sexton has always been conspicuous for direct- 
ness and for good sense. Sagacity is, indeed, the 
very soul of his oratory. He not only says 
everything better than anybody else can say it, 
but he always says the right thing. To think of 
him merely as the eloquent speaker is to forget 
the still greater claim to respect he holds as a 
man of remarkably well-balanced mind, of keen 
and almost faultless judgment. There are few 
public men who are less controlled by words 
than this master of words ; for, in spite of the 
many speeches he has delivered within the last 
few years, there cannot be pointed out a single 
sentence which could give just offence to any sec- 
tion of patriotic Irishmen. To say the right thing 
is much ; to leave unsaid the wrong thing counts, 
in politics, even for something more. He can 
marshal facts; he can discuss figures with the 
driest statistician, and can balance arguments with 
the most logic-chopping member of the House ; 





i 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 665 

and he can at the same time invest any subject 
with the glory of splendid language. He is at 
once orator and debater ; his manner fascinates, 
his matter convinces. 

Sexton is a keen observer, and his reading of 
men's motives is helped by a slight dash of cyni- 
cism. In ordinary affairs blase and physically 
lethargic, his political industry is marvellous. He 
enters the House of Commons when the Speaker 
takes the chair, and never leaves it until the door- 
keeper's cry is heard. He sits in his place dur- 
ing all those long hours, grudging the time he 
spends at a hasty dinner, or the few minutes he 
gives to the smoking of the dearly-loved cigar. 
He rarely approaches the discussion of any ques- 
tion without full knowledge of all the facts, care- 
fully arranged and abundantly illustrated by 
letters or other documents. He has great 
mastery of detail. With every measure that in 
the least degree concerns Ireland he is acquainted 
down to the last clause, and thus it is that he 
enters on all debates with a singularly complete 
equipment. Finally, his mind is extraordinarily 
alert. His opponent has scarcely sat down when 
he is on his feet with counter-arguments to meet 
even the plausible case that has been made against 
him. This gift, aided by sang-froid, makes him a 
most formidable opponent, and even the Speaker 
has had more than once to succumb before the 
ready answer and the cool temper of Sexton. 



566 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

Arthur O'Connor was born In London on 
October i, 1844. His father was a Kerry man, 
for many years one of the most eminent physi- 
cians of London. Arthur was educated at 
Ushaw ; and in the year 1863 began a clerkship 
in the War Office. There was but one vacancy, 
and there were thirty competitors ; O'Connor got 
the place, obtaining a higher average of marks 
than any Civil Service competitor for many years. 
For the space of sixteen years the young Irish- 
man led the monotonous life of the Civil Servant. 
He was a model clerk in being always accurate, 
attentive, hardworking. But outside his office 
Arthur O'Connor was the most unclerklike of 
men. He had political opinions of the most 
unpopular, unprofitable character. Then he not 
only professed Irish National principles, but he 
was elected a member of the executive of the 
Home Rule Confederation. Finally, he began to 
be seen in the lobby in the House of Commons 
in earnest and frequent colloquy with Mr. Parnell. 
O'Connor was by no means anxious to remain in 
his dingy rooms in Pall Mall. Under a scheme 
of reorganization, an offer was made to him, as to 
other clerks, to retire if he chose. He did so 
choose, and shook the dust of the War Office 
from off his feet. 

In 1879 he was elected member of the Chelsea 
Board of Guardians, and the main purpose which 
he had in getting this place was that he might 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 567 

look after Catholic interests. For six months 
not one of the Catholic inmates of the workhouse 
had been allowed to go out to mass, either on a 
Sunday or on a holiday ; nor was a Catholic 
priest permitted to enter the place ; no Catholic 
prayer-books were given to be read, and the 
Catholic children were sent to Protestant schools; 
and, finally, the institution was not stained by 
having a single " Romanist " among its officials. 
On the very first day on which O'Connor took 
his seat, the most eligible of all the applicants for 
the humble position of "scrubber" was rejected 
on the sole ground that he was a'Catholic. The 
board consisted of twenty members. O'Connor 
was the single Catholic in the whole number. 
O'Connor was not aggressive in manner, nor 
violent in language ; he made no speeches either 
strong or long, nor did he intrigue, or smile, or 
coax. He first mastered the whole complicated 
system of the poor-law code. After a while 
O'Connor had become such an expert in the law 
of the workhouse that his fellow-guardians found 
he could take care of himself, and some of them 
began to seek his aid as an ally whenever there 
was any proposal which required strong backing. 
But he had been elected a member of the Gen- 
eral Purposes Committee — the most important 
of all the committees. It had the contracts to 
give and to examine, dealt with accounts and 
other matters in the economy of the workhouse. 

32 



568 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

O'Connor devoted days and weeks to the study 
of all these accounts, with the result that he knew 
every item intimately. It became impossible for 
a penny to pass muster for which full and satis- 
factory explanation was not given — jobbery 
trembled beneath the pitiless eyes of this cold and 
calm inquisitor, and rogues fled abashed. All 
this could not be accomplished without terribly 
hard work, and every Wednesday O'Connor was 
in his place on the Committee or at the Board ; 
and though this work often extended continuously 
from ten o'clock in the morning till eight at night, 
with the exception of half-an-hour for lunch, in 
his place he remained all the time. For even a 
minute's absence might enable the jobber to rush 
through his scheme ; and not a farthing would 
O'Connor allow to pass, if criticism were de- 
manded. The Board was shocked at this inde- 
cent scrupulousness, this shocking conscientious- 
ness, this rude industry. 

Now the year of the War Office began in 
January ; that of the Board of Guardians some 
months subsequently ; the poor-law year, there- 
fore, overlapped the year of the War Office. 
Thus O'Connor was able to take the War Office 
vacation of two years within the single year of 
the Board ; and his two years' vacation were the 
Wednesdays which he spent at the Board of 
Guardians, entirely for the benefit of the poorest 
and lowliest of mankind. Never was reformer 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 5(59 

SO completely and so rapidly successful. He was 
but one year a member of the Board of Guar- 
dians — the combined forces of bigotry and job- 
bery took care that he should not be elected a 
second time. At the end of that year every 
Catholic could go to church on Sunday or holiday ; 
the Catholic Driest was admitted to the workhouse 

J. 

to instruct the inmates : in short, of the multitude 
of Catholic grievances not one remained unre- 
dressed. And yet all this had been accomplished 
without one violent word, with that exterior of 
perfect courtesy under which lay concealed fierce 
passion and relendess purpose. 

He also served for a year as a member of the 
Chelsea Vestry. He had not here the same great 
motive for activity as on the Board of Guardians ; 
but, nevertheless, he made his presence soon and 
severely felt. 

O'Connor's part in Parliament has been such 
as one might have anticipated from his previous 
career. He devoted himself to the work which 
was dryest and most uninviting; had acquired in 
a short time a knowledge so intimate of the rules 

o 

of the House as to be a terror to the Speaker. 
All was done with an air of unbroken severity, 
but of unruffled temper and of inflexible courtesy. 
O'Connor was the calm, patient, lofty spirit of 
economy that chided, but pitied, and that spoke 
in the accents of sorrow rather than of anger. 
But he would go on criticising, however painful 



570 GLADSTONE— PARNELL, 

the duty. One item disposed of, another was 
taken up ; that disposed of, there was yet another 
item; and so on through the countless figures of 
the huofe volumes that contain the Estimates. 
But it was not always criticism or always com- 
plaint. At some moments it was an explanation 
which O'Connor prayed for with his inimitable 
air of sad deference. A small speech was re- 
quired, of course, to preface the inquiry. The 
Minister having answered, a second speech was 
necessary in order to have a further word on just 
a trifling little difficulty that still remained. And 
thus it went on hour after hour— O'Connor calm, 
deferential, inquisitive, miraculously omniscient — 
the Minister restless, apologetic, with the result 
that, when the night was over, the Treasury had 
got about one out of every fifteen votes it had 
hoped to carry. Work of this kind, which is con- 
stantly done by such men as O'Connor and 
Biggar — and in former days by gallant Lysaght 
Finigan — is not and can never be reported, is 
rarely even heard of; but it is in patiently, con- 
tinuously going through the hideous drudgery of 
unrecognized toil like this that such men show 
their self-devotion. With the doubtful exception 
of Mr. Parnell, Arthur O'Connor has the best 
House of Commons style of any man in the 
party. Clear, deliberate, passionless in language, 
gesture, delivery, he is the very best model of an 
official speaker. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 57I 

Not one man in a hundred would ever guess 
when he heard him addressinof the House of 
Commons that O'Connor had a drop of Irish 
blood in his veins. The whole air is rigid, 
serious, icy. He drops his words with calculated 
slowness, and the subjects he selects for treat- 
ment are dry and formal and statistical — the sub- 
jects, in short, which are supposed to attract the 
plodding mind of the typical Englishman. The 
physique of O'Connor suggests the idea of a 
calmness and unemotional self-control which an 
Irishman is rarely supposed to possess; he is tall, 
thin, with a sombre air, and a cold, dark-blue eye. 
But all these outward presentments are but a 
mask ; in the whole Irish party there is not one 
whose heart beats with emotion so profound, with 
a hatred so fierce. Analysis has divided enthu- 
siasm into two kinds — the enthusiasm that is 
warm and the enthusiasm that is cold. The en- 
thusiasm of Arthur O'Connor is of the cold, that 
is of the perilous, type. 

Sufficient has been here written of Arthur 
O'Connor to make intelligible the high respect, 
and even affection, in which he is held by his 
friends and colleag^ues. The sternness of his 
faith does not prevent him from being one of the 
kindliest of companions, one of the most tolerant 
and even-tempered of councillors. 

Timothy Daniel Sullivan — the future ballad- 
writer of the Irish National cause — was born at 



572 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

Bantry in 1827. The father of the Sullivans was 
in but moderate circumstances, but education and 
refinement descend socially deeper in Ireland 
than in England ; and the parent of T. D. Sulli- 
van was a man of considerable culture. The 
mother was likewise a woman of large gifts, and 
was for many years a teacher. She seems to 
have had, besides, a very attractive personality. 
The home of the Sullivans was thoroughly 
National, and amid the stirring times of 1848, 
and the hideous disasters of the two preceding 
years, there were all the circumstances to make 
the faith of the family robust. The father was 
carried away, like the majority of the earnest 
Irishmen of that time, by the gospel which the 
Young Ireland leaders were preaching, and, as a 
reward, was dismissed from his employment. 

T. D. Sullivan, like his brothers, though 
brought up in a small and remote town, had a 
good education. The chief and the best school- 
master of the town was Mr. Healy, the grand- 
father of the present distinguished patriot of 
that name. Under his charge T. D. Sullivan 
was placed, and it was probably from Mr. Healy 
that Mr. Sullivan learned the most of what he 
knows. The ties between the two families were 
afterwards drawn still closer, when T. D. Sul- 
livan married Miss Kate Healy, the daughter of 
his teacher. His younger brother, A. M. Sul- 
livan, after trying his hand as an artist, ulti- 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 573 

mately became connected with the Dublin 
Nation. T. D. Sullivan meantime had also 
allowed his mind to run into dreams of a literary 
future. In fact he had filled a whole volume 
with his compositions ; but, with the secrecy 
which youth loves, he had not confided his 
transgression to any one. But two or three of 
the pieces had even appeared in print, and it was 
not till he came to Dublin and began to write in 
the Nation that the poetical genius of T. D. 
Sullivan sought recognition. Into the columns of 
that journal he began at once to pour the verses 
which he had hitherto so religiously kept 
secret, and from the first his songs attracted 
attention. Many of his poems became popular 
immediately on their appearance, and spread 
over that vast world of the Irish race which now 
extends through so many of the nations of the 
earth. A well-known story with regard to the 
" Sone from the Backwoods " will illustrate the 
influence of T. D. Sullivan's muse. Most Irish- 
men know that splendid little poem, with its bold 
opening, and its splendid refrain : 

Deep in Canadian woods we've met, 

From one bright island flown ; 
Great is the land we tread, but yet 

Our hearts are with our own. 
And ere we leave this shanty small, 
While fades the autumn day, 

We'll toast old Ireland ! 
Dear old Ireland ! 
Ireland, boys, hurrah ! 



574 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

This song, published in the Nation in 1857, 
was carried to America by Captain D. J. Down- 
ing. It rapidly became popular, both among the 
Fenians and among the Irish soldiers in the 
American army. Every man of the Irish Brigade 
knew it, and it was often sung at the bivouac fire 
after a hard day's fighting. On the night of 
the bloody battle of Fredericksburg the Federal 
army lay watchful on their arms, with spirits 
damped by the loss of so many gallant comrades. 
To cheer his brother officers Captain Downing 
sang his favorite song. The chorus of the first 
stanza was taken up by his dashing regiment, 
next by the brigade, then by the entire line of 
the army for miles along the river ; and, when the 
captain ceased, the same chant came like an echo 
from the Confederate lines. 

The song " God save Ireland " became popular 
with even greater rapidity. It was issued at an 
hour when all Ireland was stirred to intense 
depths of anger and of sorrow, and this profound 
and immense feeling longed for a voice. When 
" God save Ireland " was produced the people at 
once took it up, and so instantaneously that the 
author himself heard it chorused in a railway 
carriage on the very day after its publication. 

It has been his invariable rule in composing 
these songs to make them " ballads " in the true 
sense of the word — songs, that is to say, that 
c xpressed popular sentiment in the language of 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 575 

everyday life, that had good catching rhymes, 
and that could be easily sung. An immense 
fillip was undoubtedly given to the demand for 
abatements of rent by the song, " Griffith's 
Valuation ; " and still more successful was the 
ballad of " Murty Hynes," which was one of the 
most felicitous compositions that ever came from 
his pen. 

T. D. Sullivan was elected, as is known, along 
with Mr. H. J. Gill, for County Westmeath, at the 
general election of 1880; and in spite of the ab- 
sorbing nature of his journalistic duties he has 
been one of the most active and one of the most 
attentive members of the party. He has been 
still more prominent on the platform ; and it is at 
large Irish popular gatherings that his speech is 
most effective. He is Irish of the Irish and ex- 
presses the deep and simple gospel of the peo- 
ple in language that goes home ; and then his 
keen sense of humor enables him to supply that 
element of amusement which is always looked 
forward to with eagerness by the crowd. More 
advanced in years than many of his colleagues, 
he has, nevertheless, been as young as the 
youngest among them in his energy and in his 
hopefulness. Mr. Sullivan has shrunk from no 
work which the exigencies of the situation de- 
manded, and has been ready to take his share of 
the talking — whether the House considered his 
intervention seasonable or unseasonable ; whether 



576 GLADSTONE-PARNELL. 

he spoke to benches that were full or empty, 
silent or uproarious. Erring, perhaps, as a rule, 
on the side of over-earnestness, he often lights up 
his Parliamentary, like his conversational, efforts 
with bright flashes of wit. " Punctuality," he said 
once to a colleague who turned up at a meeting 
with characteristic lateness, "punctuality, in the 
opinion of the Irish party, is the thief of time." 
Some of his lighter poems are greater favorites 
with many people than his more serious efforts, 
because of this same vein of irrepressible humor. 

James O'Kelly was born in Dublin, in the 
year 1845. Among his companions were a num- 
ber of young men who, in the dark hours, worked 
and hoped for the elevation of the country ; and 
he learned in a school in London the scorn that 
belongs to the child of a conquered race. O'Kelly 
entered upon political work at an unusually pre- 
cocious age, and certainly had not reached his 
legal majority when political aims had become the 
lode-star of his dreams. 

These political projects were ijiterrupted in 
1863. He had from boyhood longed for the life 
of a soldier. There was no army in Ireland, he 
would not serve under the British flag, and he 
entered the army of France. He had scarcely 
been enrolled in the Foreign Legion in Paris 
when he was called upon to enter active service. 
The Arabs in the province of Oran were in re- 
bellion, and here O'Kelly had an opportunity of 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 577 

learning all the dangers of Algerine warfare. 
When Maximilian was made Emperor of Mexico 
French forces were sent by the Emperor Na- 
poleon to win for his nominee his new dominion, 
and O'Kelly's regiment was one of those which 
were detailed for this service. He took part in 
the siege of Oajaca, and after the fall of that 
town and the capture of General Porfirio Diaz — 
since President of Mexico — he advanced north- 
ward, and was present at the various battles 
which placed Northern Mexico in the power 
of the French troops. Then the tide turned in 
favor of the Mexicans; and at Mier the troops 
of Maximilian were disastrously beaten. O'Kelly 
was made a prisoner in June, 1866. But an at- 
tempt to escape, unless successful, meant death. 
His guards proved careless, and in the darkness 
of the night he eluded their vigilance. For days 
he had to wander about in hourly peril. At one 
time he took to the river, hoping to cross to the 
territories of the United States. The induce- 
ment to attempt this mode of escape was his dis- 
covery of a rude boat made from a hollowed-out 
tree ; and In this primitive craft he floated with 
the stream for a day, and finally made his way 
into Texas. 

O'Kelly had seen too much of real warfare to 
have any faith in unarmed crowds, and he was 
one of those who opposed any attempt at insur- 
rection. These counsels did not prevail, and in 



578 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

1865 there came some sporadic risings with their 
sad sequel of wholesale arrests, imprisonments, 
and long terms of penal servitude. By-and-by the 
movement began to be more serious, and in 1867 
there seemed some hope. O'Kelly then took his 
share of the danger and the responsibility, and 
was one of the chief men of the movement. For 
years he had to pass through the never-ceasing 
strain, the strange under-ground life, of the revo- 
lutionary. O'Kelly passed through it all with that 
calm courage and that cool-headedness which 
everybody recognizes, and, through determination, 
vigilance and prudence, succeeded in coming out 
unscathed. During the Franco-Prussian war he 
rejoined the French army, but when Paris sur- 
rendered he again left the service, and once 
more went to New York. Up to this time he 
had not seriously contemplated adopting journal- 
ism as a profession, and his efforts had been con- 
fined to occasional correspondence in the National 
weeklies. He applied for a situation on the 
New York Herald, and his application — like that 
of most beginners — was received coolly enough; 
but at last he got his opportunity. Mr. O'Kelly 
was gradually advanced, until he became one of 
the editors of the Herald. In 1873 there arose an 
opportunity which O'Kelly gladly embraced. The 
rebellion in Cuba was going on, and it was a 
movement in which the people of the United 
States took a keen interest. But what was the 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 579 

nature and what the methods of the rebels? 
These were points upon which no trustworthy 
information could be obtained. The Spaniards 
had the ear of the world, and the story they told 
was that there was no such thino- as a rebellion 
at all. What now remained was simply a few 
scores of scattered marauders, itinerant robbers 
and murderers. Cuban refugees in the United 
States circulated reports that the Spanish troops 
were guilty of horrible cruelties ; that they gave 
no quarter to men and foully abused women, and 
the rebellion, instead of being repressed, was 
represented as fiercer and more determined than 
ever. The rebels, few or many, were hidden be- 
hind the impenetrable forests of the country as 
completely as if they had ceased to exist. To 
reach these rebels, survey their forces — in short, 
attest their existence — was the duty which O'Kelly 
volunteered to undertake. 

O'Kelly knew when he set out that his task 
was difficult enough, but it was not until he ar- 
rived in Cuba that he realized to the full the 
meaning of his enterprise. He asked a safe- 
conduct from the captain-general ; but that func- 
tionary plainly told him that, if he persisted in try- 
ing to get to the rebels, he would do so at his own 
risk. Throughout all Cuba there was a perfect 
reign of terror. Tribunals hastily tried even those 
suspected of treason, and within a few hours after 
his arrest the " suspect " was a riddled corpse. 



580 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

Any person who, therefore, was under the frown 
of the authorities was avoided as if he had the 
plague. O'Kelly was invited to dinner in the 
heartiest manner by a descendant of an Irishman, 
but when this gentleman heard of O'Kelly's mis- 
sion, he begged him not to pay the visit, and 
promptly went to the authorities to explain the 
unlucky invitation. O'Kelly was among a people 
a vast number of whom would have considered it 
a patriotic duty to dispose of his person by some 
quiet but effective method. " It was not pos- 
sible," writes O'Kelly in 'The Mambi Land' — the 
interesting volume in which he afterwards re- 
counted his adventures — "it was not possible to 
turn back without dishonor, and though it cost 
even life itself, I would have to visit the Cuban 
camp." O'Kelly finally accomplished his purpose 
in full, but only at extreme risks. He afterwards 
returned boldly to the Spanish lines, and was im- 
prisoned, barely escaping with his life. He at 
last was sent to Spain, and then, through the 
united efforts of General Sickles, Sefior Castelar 
and Isaac Butt, was set at liberty. 

His next expedition after the visit to Cuba was 
to Brazil. He returned with the emperor from 
that country to the United States, and accom- 
panied him throughout his North American tour. 

Before the general election of 1880 O'Kelly 
returned to Europe, without the least intention 
of entering Parliament. At that time, though 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 581 

known to everybody acquainted with the inner 
life of Irish politics, to the general public he was 
unknown, except as the adventurous special cor- 
respondent. And it was some surprise when he 
succeeded in beating down so formidable an op- 
ponent as The O'Conor Don. Regarded by the 
majority of his countrymen as outside politics, and 
remote from its struggles, its aspirations, and its 
shaping, O' Kelly had been a force in fashioning 
the history of his country for many years. In 
Parliament, too, O'Kelly has, while little known to 
the public, been one of the most potent forces in 
shaping the fortunes and decisions of his party. 
He has brought to its councils great firmness of 
will, world-wide experience, common sense and 
a devotion to the interests of his country which is 
absolute. Though he has given proof abundant 
of courage, O'Kelly's advice has always been on 
the side of well-calculated rather than rash courses; 
he has, in fact, the true soldier's instinct in favor 
of the adaptation of ways and means to ends, of 
mathematical severity in estimating the strength 
of the forces for, and of the forces against, his own 
side. His whole temperament is revolutionary; 
he chafes under the restraints of Parliamentary 
life, and hates the weary contests of words ; and, 
on the other hand, he insists on every step being 
measured, every move calculated. Again, his 
large experience of life and the ruggedness of his 
sense give to his thoughts the mould of almost 



582 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

cynic realism, and yet he is an idealist, for through- 
out his whole life he has held to the idea of his 
country's resurrection with a faith which no 
danger could terrify, no disaster depress, no labor 
fatigue. 

Mr. John Dillon, as often happens, is the very 
opposite in appearance and manner from what 
readers of his speeches, especially the hostile 
readers, would expect. Tall, thin, frail, his 
physique is that of a man who has periodically to 
seek flight from death in change of scene and of 
air. His face is long and narrow; the features 
singularly delicate and refined. Coal-black hair 
and large, dark, tranquil eyes, make up a face 
that immediately arrests attention, and that can 
never be forgotten. A tranquil voice and a gentle 
manner would combat the idea that this was one 
of the protagonists in one of the fiercest struggles 
of modern times. The speeches of Mr. Dillon 
are violent in their conclusions only. The propo- 
sitions which have so often shocked unsympa- 
thetic hearers are reached by him through calcu- 
lations of apparent frigidity, and are delivered in 
an unimpassioned monotone. 

Mr. John Dillon is the son of the well-known 
John Blake Dillon, one of the bravest and purest 
spirits in the Young Ireland movement. His 
father was one of those who opposed the rising 
to the last moment as imprudent and hopeless ; 
but was among the first to risk liberty and life 




THE PRINCE OF WALES. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 585 

when it was finally resolved upon. John was 
born In Blackrock, County Dublin, in the year 
1 85 1. He was mainly instructed in the institu- 
tions connected with the Catholic University. 
He was intended for the medical profession, and 
passed through the courses of lectures, and took 
the degree of Licentiate in the College of Sur- 
geons. It was not until after the arrival of John 
Mitchel in Ireland, after his many years of exile, 
that Dillon first appeared in the political arena. 
He then took an active part in the electoral con- 
test, and helped to get Mitchel returned. The 
rise of Mr. Parnell and the active policy brought 
Mr. Dillon more prominently to the front. At 
once he became an eager advocate of Mr. Parnell 
and his policy. 

Edmund Leamy was born in Waterford, on 
Christmas Day, 1848. Waterford is one of the 
towns which, amid the terrible eclipse over the 
rest of Ireland, shone out with something of a 
national spirit. An influence that made him a 
combatant in the national ranks was the early 
companionship of Thomas Sexton. When the 
election of 1874 came, he was an apprentice in a 
solicitor's office. In 1880 Leamy was put for- 
ward by one section of the constituency, and was 
returned. There is no man in the party whose 
real abilities and services bear so little resem- 
blance to his public reputation. A touch of the 
Paddy-go-aisy spirit, a curious love for self- 
33 



586 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

effacement, have hidden him from public view ; 
but to his colleagues he is known as having 
one of the keenest and most original intellects, 
and one of the most stirring tongues of the Irish 
party. 

On the first day of the meeting of the Irish 
party the chair was occupied by the Lord Mayor 
of Dublin — the distinguished patriot, E. Dwyer" 
Gray, M. P. Mr. Gray is the son of the late 
Sir John Gray. He was born in the year 1846. 
Brought up from his earliest youth in the opin- 
ions of his father, he attained at an early age a 
correct judgment of political affairs. The mind 
of the son is even clearer than that of his father, 
and refuses steadily to accept any doctrine or 
course until it has been fully thought out. Gray 
succeeded his father in the management of the 
Freeman s journal, the chief newspaper of Ire- 
land. Becoming- a member of the Dublin Cor- 
poration, of which his father had been the guid- 
ing star for many years, he soon attained to the 
position of its leading figure. At this period he 
was Lord Mayor, and had under his control vast 
sums which had been subscribed for the relief of 
distress. Gray had been returned to the House 
of Commons shortly after the death of his father, 
and though not a frequent, was already, as he is 
still, one of its most influential debaters. There 
is no man in the Irish party, and few outside it, 
who can state a case with such pellucid clearness. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 587 

Timothy Michael Healy was born in Bantry, 
County Cork, in the year 1855. He had pecuhar 
opportunities indeed for becoming famiHar with 
the awful horrors of the famine, for his father, at 
seventeen years of age, had been appointed 
Clerk of the Union at Bantry. He has told his 
son that for the three famine years he never once 
saw a single smile. It is no wonder that Healy, 
whose nature is vehement and excitable, should 
have grown up with a burning hatred of English 
rule. 

Young Healy went to school with the Christian 
Brothers, at Fermoy ; but fortune did not permit 
him to waste any unnecessary time in what are 
called the seats of learning ; for at thirteen he 
had to set out on making a livelihood. Though 
he has thus had fewer opportunities than almost 
any other member of the House of Commons of 
obtaining education — except such as his father, an 
educated man, may have imparted to him as a 
child — he is really one of the very best informed 
men in the place. He is intimately acquainted 
with not only English but also with French and 
with German literature, and could give his 
critics lessons in what constitutes literary merit. 
Another of the accomplishments which Mr, 
Healy taught himself was Pitman's shorthand ; 
and shorthand in his case was the sword with 
which he had in life's beginning to open the 
oyster of the world. At sixteen years of age he 



588 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

went to England and obtained a situation as a 
shorthand clerk in the office of the superin- 
tendent of the North Eastern Railway, at New- 
castle. 

English contemporary chronicles are not only 
full of his name, but absolutely teem with par- 
ticulars of his life, especially in its earliest years. 
Society journals have, on various occasions, espe- 
cially busied themselves with him, and, according 
to these veracious organs, Mr. Healy began life 
in a rag-and-bone shop, and, after much labor, 
graduated into a ticket-nipper. In various other 
journals there have been equally lively accounts. 
Mr. Healy has been described as ignorant and 
impudent, as foolish and as crafty, as rolling in 
ill-gotten wealth and as buried in abysmal pov- 
erty. There is no man of any Parliamentary 
party, in fact, of which so many portraits have 
been painted, and who has had to bear so many 
of these slings and arrows which the outrageous 
pens of hostile journalism can fling. 

This man, before whom ministers grow pale, is 
the delight and the darling of children, whose 
tastes and pleasures he can minister to with the 
unteachable instinct of genius. In 1878 he re- 
moved to London, partly for commercial and 
partly for journalistic reasons. After migrat- 
ing- to London he was asked to contribute a 
weekly letter to the Nation on Parliamentary 
proceedings, which had just begun to get lively. 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 589 

From this time forward his face accordingly 
became famiHar in the lobby of the House of 
Commons. He at once threw all his force on 
the side of the " active " section of the old Home 
Rule party, and Mr. Parnell has several times re- 
marked that it was to Mr. Healy's advocacy of 
his policy that the active party owed much of 
its success in those early days. In the opinion 
of many, his pen is even more effective than his 
tongue ; mordant, happy illustration, trenchant 
argument — all these things are still happily at 
the service of Irish national journalism. Per- 
haps the most remarkable of all Mr. Healy's qual- 
ities is his restless industry. From the moment 
he crosses the floor of the lobby till the House 
rises, he is literally never a moment at rest — 
excepting the half hour or so he spends at 
dinner in the restaurant within the House. He 
has almost as many correspondents as a minister, 
and he tries to answer nearly every letter on the 
day of its receipt. Then he takes an interest in, 
and knows all about, everything that is going on, 
great or small, English, or Irish, or Scotch. The 
extent of his knowledge of Parliamentary measures 
is astonishing ; Healy holds himself at the service 
of everybody. And he is never absent from the 
House when anything of importance is going for- 
ward. He is, like the Premier, distinguished from 
other members by the fact that even in the division 
lobbies he is to be seen utilizing the precious 



590 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

moments by writing. The characteristics of his 
oratory are rather peculiar. Often when he 
stands up first he is tame, disjointed, and in- 
effective, but he is one of the. men who gather 
strength and fire as they go along ; and before he 
has resumed his seat he has said some things that 
have set all the House laughing, and some that 
have put all the House into a rage. Finally, 
Healy has the defects of his qualities. The 
ardor of his temperament and the fierceness of 
his convictions often tempt him to exaggeration 
of language and of conduct. Those who play 
the complicated game of politics for such mighty 
stakes as a nation's fate and the destinies of 
millions ought to keep cool heads and steady 
hands. A quick temper and a sharp tongue 
cause many pangs to his friends, but keener 
tortures to Healy himself. 

William O'Brien was brought up from his 
earliest years in those principles of which he has 
become so prominent and so vigorous an ad- 
vocate. O'Brien's father was one of the most 
resolute spirits of the Young Ireland party; but 
afterwards, like so many of the men who survived 
that time, was by no means friendly to bloodshed 
or physical force. In time he had to remon- 
strate with some of his own offspring for their 
Fenianism, but his mouth was closed whenever his 
remonstrances became vehement by an allusion 
to the days of his own youth, William O'Brien 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 59I 

was born on October 2, 1852, in Mallow, with 
which town his family on the mother's side has 
been connected from time immemorial. He 
received his education at Cloyne Diocesan 
College. William' from his earliest years had 
the same principles as he professes to-day. 
Apart from the example of his father, he had in 
his brother a strong apostle of national rights. 
This brother was indeed of a type to captivate 
the imagination of such a nature as that of his 
younger brother. Among the revolutionaries of 
his district he was the chief figure, and there was 
no raid for arms too desperate, or no expedition 
too risky for his spirit. He was arrested, of course, 
when the Habeas Corpus Act was suspended, 
and underwent the misery and tortures which 
were inflicted on untried pri-soners under the 
best of possible constitutions and freest of pos- 
sible governments. With this episode in the 
life of the elder brother the brightness of the life 
of William O'Brien for many a long day ceased. 
His family history is strangely and terribly sad. 

The first noteworthy thing which William 
O'Brien ever wrote was a sketch of the trial of 
Captain Mackay. This attracted the attention of 
the proprietor of the Cork Daily Herald and 
he was offered an engagement upon that paper. 
There he remained until towards 1876, when he 
became a member of the staff of the Freeman's 
Journal. He did the ordinary work of the re- 



592 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

porter for several years, with occasional dashes 
into more congenial occupation. Whenever his 
work had any connection with the condition or 
prospects of his country he devoted himself to it 
with a special fervor. When the Coercion Act 
was passed in 1880, he thought the moment had 
come for him to offer his services to maintain the 
fight in face of threats of danger. His health, 
however, was at the time so weak that his friends 
feared that the imprisonment which was almost 
certain to follow employment by the League would 
prove fatal to his constitution, and he was dis- 
suaded from joining the ranks of the movement. 
In June, 1881, when the conflict between Mr. 
Forster and the Land League was at its fiercest, 
the idea occurred of establishing a newspaper as 
an organ of the League and Parnellite party, 
and he was invited by Mr. Parnell to found 
United Ireland and to become its editor. 

Great as was his reputation as a writer of 
nervous English, he had hitherto been unknown 
as the author of political articles, and few were 
prepared for the grasp and force of the editorials 
he contributed to the new journal. O'Brien is 
the very embodiment of the militant journalist. 
Though he has keen literary instincts and a fine 
soul, his work is important to him mainly because 
of its political result. Fragile in frame and weak 
in health, he is yet above all things a combatant, 
ready and almost eager to meet danger. A long, 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 593 

thin face, deep-set and piercing eyes, flashing out 
from behind spectacles, sharp features, and quick, 
feverish walk — the whole appearance of the man 
speaks of a restless and enthusiastic character. 

United Ireland was suppressed by Mr. Forster, 
but, with the overthrow of Mr. Forster, the paper 
was again revived. It soon became evident that 
United Ireland was about to enter upon a 
struggle fiercer than even that with Mr. Forster. 
It seemed as if the country would lie paralyzed 
under the regime of packed juries and partisan 
judges. In the stillness which came over the 
country under such a regime, the voice of 
United Ireland rang out clear and loud and 
defiant as ever. The partisanship of the judges 
was ruthlessly attacked, the shameful packing of 
juries was exposed, and attention was called to 
the protestations of innocence that came from so 
many dying lips. In this period it was held that 
no such criticism was permissible, and Lord 
Spencer resolved to crush the fearless and bril- 
liant journalist. Then began that long and lonely 
duel between Mr. O'Brien and Earl Spencer which 
lasted with scarce an interruption for three fierce 
years. 

The contest was opened by an action against 
Mr. O'Brien for " seditious libel." The meaning 
of seditious libel is any attack upon the Admin- 
istration not agreeable to the officials then in 
power. An action of this character is, of course, 



594 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

no longer possible in England. In the midst of 
this trial a vacancy arose in the representation 
of Mallow. It had been arranged before, that 
whenever the General Election came, Mr. 
O'Brien, as a Mallow man, should appeal to the 
town to join the rest of the country in the de- 
mand for Irish rights. The opportunity had 
come sooner than anybody had anticipated. 
The prosecution of O'Brien by the Government 
lent a singular character to the struggle, and a 
further element of significance was added by the 
Government sending down Mr. Naish, their new 
Attorney-General, as his opponent. Mallow 
had been a favorite ground for the race of cor- 
rupt place-hunters in the period when a place in 
Parliament was the only avenue to legal pro- 
motion. 

The contest for Mallow, under circumstances 
like these, attracted an immense amount of atten- 
tion, and all Ireland looked to the result with eager- 
ness. But the reputation of Mallow had been 
so bad for so many years that the utmost expec- 
tation was that Mr. O'Brien would be returned 
by a small majority. The change that had come 
over all Ireland was shown when it was found 
that O'Brien had been returned by a majority of 72. 

John E. Redmond is one of the orators of 
the Irish party. He speaks with clearness, cour- 
tesy and at the same time with deadly vigor. He 
is the man of all others to put into a difficult 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 697 

situation — cool, self-controlled, a perfect master 
of fence. There is no Scylla or Charybdis 
through which he cannot steer the barque of his 
words. He has done enormous service to the 
cause by speeches in Australia and America, and 
there is no man who produces more effect in the 
House of Commons in favor of his own side. 

Timothy Harrington is the organizer par 
excellence among the Irish members. He is a 
man of extraordinary energy of character, men- 
tal and physical. No amount of work is capable 
of fatiguing him. He has lived through a half- 
dozen imprisonments, occasionally with the plank- 
bed and prison-board, and has come out looking 
more robust, more energetic and as kindly as 
ever. He is a curious mixture of the apostle 
and the soldier — overflowing with the milk of 
human kindness and at the same time with an in- 
satiate desire to *' boss," to organize and win — a 
curious combination of St. Vincent de Paul and 
General Grant. He is at this moment the prac- 
tical Governor of Ireland. As Secretary of the 
National League he has that immense organi- 
zation entirely under his control. He rules with 
a kindly but yet with a firm hand, bullies and 
cajoles, argues and vituperates, makes long 
speeches and dictates long letters and all the time 
beams upon the world and looks for new regions 
to conquer and to lick into shape. People occa- 
sionally quarrel with him, but everybody admires 



598 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

him and his intimates love him. He has one of 
the best and kindliest and most sincere of na- 
tures. He was a newspaper editor until the Land 
League agitation brought him into public life. 
He threw himself into the struggle with his whole 
soul, and was soon one of the most potent mem- 
bers of the organization. 

At this point we resume our sketch of the Par- 
liamentary campaign of 1886. The 8th of April 
was fixed as the day for Mr. Gladstone to unfold 
his new Irish policy. Never in the whole course of 
his great career had he an audience more splen- 
did. Every seat in every gallery was crowded. 
The competition for places in the House itself 
had led to scenes unprecedented in the history of 
that assembly. The Irish members were of 
course more anxious than any others to secure a 
good position. The English members were not 
quite so early as the Irish, but they were not far 
behind ; and long before noon there was not a 
seat left for any newcomer. Mr. Gladstone's 
speech began by showing the state of social 
order in Ireland. Then he asked the question 
whether Coercion had succeeded in keeping down 
crime. He pointed out that exceptional legis- 
lation which introduces exceptional provisions 
into the law ought itself to be in its own nature 
essentially and absolutely exceptional, and it 
has become not exceptional but habitual. Then 
he proceeded to give a reason why Coercion 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 599 

had failed. Having proved that Coercion was 
no longer applicable to the case of Ireland he 
went on to ask whether there was no alternative. 
He went on to say that he did not think the 
people of England and Scotland would again 
resort to such ferocious Coercion as he had 
described, until it had exhausted every other 
alternative. He then showed that England and 
Scotland have each a much nearer approach to 
autonomy under Parliament than Ireland has. 
He next discussed the possibility of reconciling 
local self-government with imperial unity, and 
after that treated, in a masterly way, the nature 
of the present union of the kingdoms under one 
Parliament. He discussed in a summary way 
several of the solutions which had been proposed 
for the difficulties which the case involved, show- 
ing their insufficiency. He then announced his 
own plan of giving Ireland a local administra- 
tion and a local Parliament for home affairs, and 
at the same time gave reasons for rejecting the 
idea of giving Irish representatives seats in the 
Houses of the British Parliament, the Irish mem- 
bers to have a vote on imperial affairs. He gave it 
as his opinion that the fiscal unity of the empire 
should be maintained, except as regards moneys 
raised by local taxation for local purposes. He 
then showed that Ireland needed administrative 
as well as legislative independence. He an- 
nounced the plan of reserving certain subjects with 



600 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

which the Irish legislature should have no power 
to deal, such as the succession, regencies, pre- 
rogatives, and other matters pertaining to the 
Crown ; the army and navy ; foreign and colonial 
relations ; certain already established and char- 
tered rights ; the establishment or endowment 
of any particular religion ; the laws of coinage, 
trade and navigation — these subjects being re- 
served for imperial legislation. He then pro- 
posed a plan on which the Irish legislature 
might be organized ; suggested the powers and 
prerogatives of the Viceroy and of his Privy 
Council ; and announced a plan by which the 
financial relations of Ireland to the rest of the 
Empire might be established. He next criti- 
cised as wasteful the present expenditure of public 
money in Ireland, and discussed the Irish ex- 
chequer and the future of Irish credit. In dis- 
cussing the financial part of his scheme for Home 
Rule Mr. Gladstone made some very suggestive 
remarks : 

" I will state only one other striking fact with 
regard to the Irish expenditure. The House 
would like to know what an amount has been 
going on — and which at this moment is going on 
— of what I must call not only a waste of public 
money, but a demoralizing waste of public money, 
demoralizing in its influence upon both countries. 
The civil charges per capita at this moment are 
in Great Britain 8^. 2d. and in Ireland i6or. They 



k 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 601 

have increased in Ireland in the last fifteen years 
by sixty-three per cent., and my beUef is that if 
the present legislative and administrative systems 
be maintained you must make up your minds to 
a continued, never-ending-, and never-to-be-limited 
augmentation. The amount of the Irish contri- 
bution upon the basis I have described would be 
as follows : One-fifteenth of the annual debt 
charge of ;^2 2,000,000 would be ^1,466,000, one' 
fifteenth of the army and navy charge, after ex- 
cluding what we call war votes, and also excluding 
the charges for volunteers and yeomanry, would 
be ;^i, 666,000, and the amount of the civil 
charges, which are properly considered imperial, 
would entail upon Ireland ;^ 11 0,000, or a total 
charge properly imperial of ;/"3, 242,000. I am 
now ready to present what I may call an Irish 
budget, a debtor and creditor account for the 
Irish exchequer. The customs produce in Ire- 
land a gross sum of ^1,880,000, the excise 
;^4,300,ooo, the stamps ;^6oo,ooo, the income- 
tax ;^5 50,000 and the non-tax revenue, including 
the post office, ^1,020,000. And, perhaps, here 
again I ought to mention as an instance of the 
demoralizing waste which now attends Irish ad- 
ministration, that which will perhaps surprise the 
House to know — namely, that while in England 
and Scotland we levy from the post office and 
telegraph system a large surplus income; in 
Ireland the post office and the telegraphs just 



602 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

pay their expenses, or leave a surplus so small as 
not to be worth mentioning. 

"The total receipts of the Irish Exchequer are 
thus shown to amount to ;^8, 3 50,000, and against 
that I have to place an imperial contribution 
which I may call permanent, because it will last 
for a great number of years, of ;^3, 242,000. I put 
down ;^ 1, 000,000 for the constabulary, because 
that would be a first charge, although I hope that 
it will soon come under very effective reduction. 
I put down ;^2, 5 10,000 for the other civil charges 
in Ireland, and there, again, I have not the 
smallest doubt that that charge will likewise be 
very effectually reduced by an Irish Government. 
Finally, the collection of revenue is ;^834,ooo, 
making a total charge thus far of ;^7, 586,000. 
Then we have thought it essential to include in 
this arrangement, not only for our own sakes, but 
for the sake of Ireland also, a payment on account 
of the Sinking Fund against the Irish portion of 
the National Debt. The Sinking Fund is now 
paid for the whole National Debt. We have now 
to allot a certain portion of that debt to Ireland. 
We think it necessary to maintain that Sinking 
Fund, and especially for the interest of Ireland. 
When Ireland gets the management of her own 
affairs, I venture to prophesy that she will want, 
for useful purposes, to borrow money. But the 
difficulty of that operation will be enormously 
higher or lower according to the condition of her 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 603 

public credit. Her public credit is not yet born. 
It has yet to lie like an infant in the cradle, and it 
may require a good deal of nursing, but no nurs- 
ing would be effectual unless it were plain and 
palpable to the eye of the whole world that Ire- 
land had provision in actual working order for 
discharging her old obligations so as to make it 
safe for her to contract new obligations more 
nearly allied to her own immediate wants. I 
therefore put down three-quarters of a million for 
Sinking Fund. That makes the total charge 
;^7, 946,000, against a total income of ;^8, 3 50,000, 
or a surplus of ;!f 404,000. But I can state to the 
House that that ;^404,ooo is a part only of the 
Fund, which, under the present state of things, it 
would be the duty of the Chancellor of the Ex- 
chequer of the three countries to present to you 
for the discharge of our collective expenditure." 

The speech wound up with the following pero- 
ration : " I ask you to show to Europe and to 
America that we too can face political problems 
which America twenty years ago faced, and which 
many countries in Europe have been called upon 
to face and have not feared to deal with. I ask 
that in our own case we should practise with firm 
and fearless hand what we have so often preached 
— the doctrine which we have so often inculcated 
upon others — namely, that the concession of local 
self-government is not the way to sap or impair, 
but the way to strengthen and consolidate, unity. 
34 



604 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

I ask that we should learn to rely less upon merely 
written stipulations, and more upon those better 
stipulations which are written on the heart and 
mind of man. I ask that we should apply to Ire- 
land that happy experience which we have gained 
in England and in Scotland, where the course of 
generations has now taught us, not as a dream 
or a theory but as practice and as life, that the 
best and surest foundation we can find to build 
upon is the foundation afforded by the affections, 
the convictions, and the will of the nation ; and 
it is thus, by the decree of the Almighty, that we 
may be enabled to secure at once the social peace, 
the fame, the power, and the permanence of the 
Empire." 

The speech was eminently judicious in its tone. 
The eagerness of the House to hear its interest- 
ing details was so great that even faction was 
silent, and Mr. Gladstone was allowed to proceed 
calmly to the end. Immediately afterwards, on 
Friday, the i6th of April, Mr. Gladstone brought 
in the Land Purchase Bill. It will suffic-2 for the 
present to say that the main object of that bill 
was to issue fifty millions worth of stock for the 
purpose of enabling the Irish tenants to become 
proprietors of the Irish soil. The Land Purchase 
Bill played no other part in Parliament of itself, 
never having been brought beyond the stage 
of its introduction, but it had an indirect influence 
of a fatal character. The Land Purchase Bill, in 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 605 

fact, more than anything else killed Home Rule. 
The Home Rule Bill was immediately attacked 
from different points, by Lord Hartington, by Mr. 
Chamberlain, by Mr. Goschen, by Sir George 
Trevelyan. The attacks were not, however, very 
damaging. Mr. Chamberlain and Sir George 
Trevelyan met the bill by counter-proposals which 
were obviously ridiculous. Lord Hartington and 
Mr. Goschen were more adroit and confined them- 
selves to strictly destructive criticism. The for- 
tunes of the bill rose and fell every day. A 
large number of the Liberal party were found to 
be without any settled convictions on the ques- 
tion. It became evident as time went on that 
Mr. Gladstone would have to make desperate 
efforts to carry his bill, and he certainly did make 
desperate efforts. Grave objection had been taken 
to the exclusion of Irish members for Westmin- 
ster. He promised to meet the objection and 
allow their return to Westminster on certain con- 
ditions. Finally it had been suggested that the 
bills had come upon the public mind too rap- 
idly. He agreed accordingly to drop the Home 
Rule Bill and to reintroduce it in an autumn sit- 
ting. The Tories and the Whigs accordingly made 
a final attack on Mr. Gladstone the following day. 
Mr. Gladstone defended himself with warmth, and 
practically repeated the same things he had said 
in the Foreign Office speech. But the waverers 
among his followers professed to find a difference 



60G GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

between the two speeches. Mr. Chamberlain 
called a meeting of his followers on the following 
Monday, and a resolution was passed pledging 
the members present to vote against the second 
reading, and the fate: of the bill was sealed. 

The division took place on June 7th amid scenes 
of intense excitement. Mr, Gladstone wound up 
the debate in a speech which was universally re- 
garded as one of the finest he had ever delivered. 
He went over the whole ground, clearly recapit- 
ulated and destroyed all objections, and wound 
up with an appeal perhaps the most noble of any 
throuohout all his maonificent series of addresses 
on this question. But eloquence and reason were 
lost upon the dull heads and the malignant hearts 
that had determined to humiliate the lofty genius 
whose magnanimity rebuked their petty mean- 
ness. When the division was taken there were 
for the bill 311, against 341. Then ensued a 
scene of wild excitement. The Tories cheered 
themselves hoarse ; the Irish remained for a time 
silent, and when the Tory cheers died away they 
rose to their feet and cheered back in defiance. 

There were tumultuous scenes meantime out- 
side the House, and some free fighting, but at last 
the noise died away and the mad scene had come 
to a close. A few days afterwards the ministers 
announced that they had resolved to dissolve Par- 
liament, and the battle was now transferred from 
the House of Commons to the constituencies. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE APPEAL TO THE COUNTRY. 

WHEN the appeal to the country began 
the signs were favorable to the Govern- 
ment. Throughout the whole of the country the 
Liberal associations founded by Mr. Chamber- 
lain had met, and with scarcely an exception had 
pronounced against the men who refused to do 
justice to Ireland. Even Mr. Chamberlain him- 
self had not been spared, and at a crowded 
meeting a resolution had been carried against 
him with very little dissent. The working classes 
gave testimony in favor of the, Irish cause. No 
Irishman, indeed, who has gone through this 
crisis has failed to be deeply impressed with the 
attitude of the English, Scotch and Welsh de- 
mocracy. Whatever misgivings or divisions there 
were among other sections of society, there was 
scarcely any among the masses of the people. 
They were not only favorable to the policy of 
Mr. Gladstone, but they were enthusiastic in its 
favor. Opponents of the measure could scarcely 
get a hearing. Mr. Richard Chamberlain, who 
had followed his brother in attacking the policy 

607 



608 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

of the Government, was unable after a time to 
hold any meetings whatever in the constituency 
of West Islington, and had to trust for his return 
to the efforts of Tories and of Whigs. Mr. Glad- 
stone began his tour by going to Scotland, where 
opinion was held to be very shaky, especially as 
Presbyterian ministers had been abroad through 
the country making appeals to religious bigotry 
and inventing dangers for Irish Protestantism. 
He started from London amidst a scene of the 
wildest enthusiasm. Wherever he stopped, even 
for a few moments, the people rushed in thou- 
sands to catch a glimpse of his face, and hear the 
sound of his voice. When, finally, he reached 
Edinburgh, the demonstration received an ap- 
propriate climax in one of the most extraordinary 
manifestations of popular welcome ever ac- 
corded him. He then made a succession of 
speeches in Scotland, among the most masterly 
of his life, which put the case with admirable 
clearness before the country, and which were 
everywhere listened to by dense and unanimous 
audiences, and it certainly looked as if Scotland 
were absolutely as one man. From Scotland he 
proceeded to England, and here a series of 
demonstrations of equal enthusiasm awaited him. 
He spoke at Manchester, and as he passed 
through the streets he had a reception which an 
emperor might envy. In Liverpool, although it 
has long been the favored home of the worst 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 609 

form of Toryism, he met with an overwhelming 
display of assent and affection. 

But all this time the enemies of Mr. Gladstone 
were at work. Lord Hartington went from one 
part of the country to the other, everywhere de- 
nouncing the policy of the Prime Minister. His 
speeches were, however, marked by dignity, self- 
control and perfect freedom from mean or ma- 
levolent insinuation. Mr. Goschen worked even 
harder, and spoke in every part of the country. 
He also, though he spoke strongly, spoke with 
becoming decorum, except when dealing with the 
unfortunate Irish members. But Mr. Chamber- 
lain threw off the mask completely, and attacked 
the Prime Minister in language of most vindictive 
bitterness. He brought all sorts of charges 
against him, but the climax was reached in 
Cardiff, where he suggested that Mr. Gladstone 
had consulted American revolutionaries before 
formulating his policy. Of course the charge 
was utterly untrue ; but it produced a startling 
and tremendous effect. From all parts of the 
great hall came shouts of " Traitor ! Traitor ! " 
Nor did Mr. Chamberlain fight the battle with 
honesty on any point. His main charge against 
the Government was reearding- their Land Pur- 
chase scheme. He did not tell the people any- 
thing of the two Land Purchase schemes of his 
own invention. As a matter of fact he had 
written an article in the Fortnightly Review^ in 



610 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

which he accepted a proposal of Mr. Giffen's, 
a scheme for buying out all the landlords imme- 
diately ; a proposal much vaster in extent than 
that of Mr. Gladstone. He had subsequently 
read before the cabinet a scheme of Land Pur- 
chase, according to which forty millions were to 
be spent in buying out the poorest classes of 
tenants. That document was secret and confi- 
dential, and has never yet been presented to the 
public. Mr. Gladstone, however, whose authority 
on finance everybody accepts, has declared in 
public that, by Mr. Chamberlain's scheme, the 
British Exchequer would have to sacrifice mil- 
lions of money, and in private is reported to 
have said that not the devil himself could have 
invented a scheme with more objections and 
more absurdities than that of Mr. Chamberlain. 
Mr. Gladstone asked Mr. Chamberlain to publish 
his scheme to the world, so that the public might 
have an opportunity of judging between the two 
land policies of Mr. Gladstone and Mr. Cham- 
berlain. With characteristic dishonesty, Mr. 
Chamberlain refused to accept 'the challenge. 
By this time he knew well what reception at- 
tempts at constructive statesmanship from his 
hands were likely to receive. 

Mr. Bright finally joined in the combination 
against the Prime Minister. He also dealt at 
great length with the question of Land Purchase, 
but he was almost as uncandid on this ooint as 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. fill 

Mr. Chamberlain. In the Land Act of 1870 there 
were clauses which are known as the Bright 
clauses. These clauses deal entirely with the 
question of Land Purchase. They are the first 
enactments on the British Statute Book in favor 
of allowing the tenants to become the owners of 
their holdings with the assistance of the State, and 
in fact the idea of land purchase first became a 
part of practical politics through Mr. Bright him- 
self He is the legislative father of the whole 
policy. 

Previous to 1880 he made several speeches in 
Ireland and elsewhere, in which he laid down that 
the real settlement of the land difficulty of Ire- 
land was a vast and wholesale scheme of land pur- 
chase. He now attacked Mr. Gladstone for 
carrying out a policy which he himself had been 
the strongest to advocate. He also took up 
stronger ground than almost any other opponent 
of Mr. Gladstone's policy. To any Parliament of 
any kind whatever in Dublin he declared himself 
entirely opposed. When he came to give reasons 
for this, the only substantive ground he could 
give was his hatred of the present Irish repre- 
sentatives, and here he revealed in public what 
was long known in private, that his rage against 
the Irish members had clouded his judgment. In 
recent years they and he have come into pretty 
frequent collision. He has poured upon their 
heads torrents of abuse, he has recommended 



612 GLADSTONE— rARNELL. 

them for prosecution to the legal authorities. He 
has gone out of his way on more than one occa- 
sion, when everybody's tongue was silent, to 
rouse again the rancorous echoes of past quarrels. 
The lofty, serene and broad-minded philanthropist 
and philosopher has ceased to exist in anybody's 
mind who has anything like an inside view of 
English political life, and under this mask is seen 
a narrow, vain, venomous nature. Throughout 
his whole life Mr. Bright has never been known 
to forgive an affront, real or imaginary. His 
vanity is as rabid, as fierce, as susceptible as that 
of a fashionable coquette. And the whole tem- 
per of his mind, in recent years, has been one of 
carping and sardonic cynicism. The Irish mem- 
bers were only human, and had replied to his 
attacks with language of harshness as strong as 
his own, for in the stress of the struggle passions 
have been profoundly stirred, and Mr. Bright, with 
perhaps the exception of Mr. Chamberlain, is the 
only man who has given the bad example of cher- 
ishing the memory of these past struggles. Mr. 
Gladstone and Lord Spencer have been more 
fiercely assailed, yet all these controversies have 
been wiped out from their minds as unsubstantial 
dreams. The carping, malignant, Tory old age 
of Mr. Bright is one of the dreariest closes to a 
manhood of largeness, liberalism and sympathy 
with the human race. 

But the general public knew nothing of this 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 6I3 

inside view of Mr. Bright. It was his speech de- 
Uvered just before the polHngs began that helped 
more than anything else to defeat the policy of 
Mr. Gladstone. The English public are rather 
slow to receive new ideas, and the idea of Ireland 
having a right to self-government was emphati- 
cally a new one to them. For generations, aye, 
for centuries, they had been taught by all their 
statesmen, by all their litterateurs, by all their 
journalists, to regard the demand of Ireland for 
self-government as a proof of the folly or the 
wickedness of a feather-headed and a criminal 
nation, and before accepting this new idea they 
had to sweep away much misrepresentation and 
prejudice. Then, a knowledge of Irish history is 
unknown, even among the Irish themselves. On 
all the tragic story of that country the English 
mind is a perfect blank. Under circumstances 
like these, the country had only to trust to au- 
thorities, and here were the most trusted au- 
thorities differing among themselves. 

There were various other causes which con- 
tributed to defeat Mr. Gladstone, Many people 
throughout the country were deeply concerned for 
the safety of the Irish Protestants, ignorant of the 
central fact of Irish history that National move- 
ments have, with the single exception of O'Con- 
nell's, always had Protestants as their leaders, and 
that the present leader of the Irish party is a Prot- 
estant, and that in electoral matters many of the 



614 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

fiercest struggles have been on the side of a 
Protestant Nationalist against a Catholic Whig. 

The " No-Popery " cry has not died out in Eng- 
land, but it represents a force that is not spent; 
and it may, under the influence of passion and 
popular excitement, be once more aroused, es- 
pecially among some of the less enlightened 
ministers of religion. The vast majority of the 
dissenting clergymen, to their infinite credit, re- 
fused to give any countenance to this abject ap- 
peal to dead bigotry. But there were others 
who were inclined to revive the corpse. Mr. 
Chamberlain joined with Lord Randolph Churchill 
in the flagitious efforts to drag this hideous and 
revolting idea of religious bigotry into the 
struggle. The Tory and the Radical leaders both 
joined in preaching that the poor Orangemen of 
Ulster were in danger of their lives and their 
property from the ferocious Catholics, and, at the 
very moment when these insidious appeals were 
being made, the lamb-like Orangemen were plun- 
dering Catholic houses and destroying Catholic 
lives with perfect immunity, as it afterwards 
turned out, for all the cases against them were 
dismissed by their Orange grand-juries ; and 
Orange spokesmen were declaring that rather 
than submit to the Imperial Parliament estab- 
lishing Home Rule they would appeal to the God 
of Battles. Mr. Spurgeon, who was one of the 
clergymen who were carried away by the ignoble 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 615 

revival of obsolete mediaeval ideas, wrote a letter 
against the bill of Mr. Gladstone, which was 
circulated widely throughout the country and 
which produced considerable effect among the 
well-to-do dissenters. 

While the Radicals were thus doing Tory work 
the Tories themselves were active and energetic. 
In the last few years there has been established 
a body known as tlie Primrose League, which 
exercises a considerable influence, especially at 
election times. It has a series of titles and of 
ceremonies that are a pretentious revival of the 
paraphernalia of chivalric days. Branches are 
described as habitations, and ladies who join the 
association are dubbed Primrose dames. The 
origin of the association is an entirely unfounded 
report that Lord Beaconsfield was especially fond 
of the primrose. That gaudy and gipsy genius 
never said a word about primroses in the whole 
course of his speeches and writings, except that 
on one occasion one of his heroes declares that 
he would like a salad of primroses. His real 
tastes lay much more in the direction of peacocks 
than primroses. The astute gentlemen who 
spread the story knew very well that it was just 
the kind of thing which would appeal to the 
maudlin imagination of the classes of society 
from which conservatism draws its recruits. The 
Primrose League has succeeded enormously be- 
cause it has given the bourgeoisie an opportunity 



616 GLADSTONE— PARXELI^ 

of rubbincr shoulders with the aristocracy. Its 
method of working is to send round female can- 
vassers to tlie voters. These ladies secure im- 
munit)*, and venture on steps the boldness of 
which would appall men. The laws against cor- 
ruption and intimidation have no terrors for them. 
In parts of London and other cities tliey have told 
the shop-keeper that if he would not vote for the 
Tor}' candidate they would withdraw^ their cus- 
tom. And they proved as good as their w^ord, 
and in some cases have actually pointed to shops 
silent and closed which their effective boycotting 
had reduced to this bankrupt condition from pre- 
vious solvency and prosperity'. In tlie country 
the pressure upon the recendy emancipated ag- 
ricultural laborer was also extremely severe. 
The landlord went around to the cottages of the 
poor who were dependent for labor and almost for 
life upon the squire and asked the shivering wretch 
for the promise of his vote. . Farmers fought on 
the same side with equal energ\'. The farmer 
in England is a dull and earthy creature, full of 
prejudices, meaner and narrower than even the 
aristocrat above him, is a Tor\- of Tories, and has 
a grudge above all others against Mr. Gladstone; 
for he was the man who, by lowering the fran- 
chise in the counties, brought the laborer to an 
equalit}' with his insolent employer the farmer. 
The elections took place in June and July, the 
months when hay-making is at its height, and 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 617 

the farmers took very good care when they felt a 
little uncertain as to the laborers' vote to keep 
them, for one excuse or another, in the fields 
hay-making until the time for voting had passed. 

But the thing above all others which proved 
effective against the Government was the Land 
Purchase scheme. Under the bill of Mr. Glad- 
stone there would not have been the possibility 
of the loss of a farthing to the British exchequer ; 
but Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. Bright, and a great 
many others repeated it so often that it was finally 
believed that the meaning of the bill was that the 
British taxpayer would have to spend ^150,000,- 
000 in paying the Irish landlord. It was a singu- 
lar Nemesis on the landlords of Ireland that their 
tyranny and cruelty had become so well known 
that hatred of them had grown into a passion with 
the British as with the Irish democracy, and for 
the working classes of the country to be called 
upon to have to pay higher taxes in order that 
these scoundrels might get a heavy price for their 
stolen goods was a project against which the 
workingman's stomach revolted ; and in voting 
against the Gladstonian candidate, or refusing to 
vote for him, vast numbers of men were impelled 
by the idea that they were striking a blow against 
the hated tyrants of the Irish soil. 

Finally the Tories and the Liberal Unionists 
had made a treaty which was carried out with 
astonishing fidelity in every place in which it was 



618 GLADSTONE— rARNELI.. 

made. Iwcry Liberal who voted against tin; bill 
was promised by the Tories freedom from all Tory 
opposition. The result of it was that in a vast 
number of constituencies, nearly one hundred 
altogether, the Liberal who opposed Mr. Cilad- 
stone had the solid Tory vote, and it will be clear 
that it required but a small percentage of his own 
following among the Liberals to be able to win a 
seat on a contest of such a character. In this 
way a number of Liberals were returned to Par- 
liament by Tory votes, and of course, with this 
vote, were able in most instances to defy attacks 
made upon their seats by the honest liberalism 
of the constituencies. Nevertheless, this union 
of bitter opponents proved ineffective in some 
remarkable cases, and several of the most prom- 
inent enemies of Ireland were defeated. Mr. 
Goschen was beaten by an immense majority in 
Edinburgh ; Sir George Trevelyan was routed in 
the Border Burghs after holding the seat for 
eighteen years ; Mr. Albert Grey, with all the 
influence of Lord Grey, a large landed proprietor, 
and of the Tories and Whigs, was beaten for the 
Tyneside Division, and Lord Hartington had to 
rely almost wholly on Tory votes in his own con- 
stituency of Rossendale. 

In Ireland, meantime, the Parnellites had been 
winning their way steadily after the usual fashion. 
It had been declared over and over again both in 
the debates in Parliament and during the election 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 610 

campaign that the Parnellite members represented 
but a minority of the Irish population, and that 
their return had been brought about by the intim- 
idation of the loyal portion of the inhabitants. 
Nevertheless, in the majority of seats the loyalists 
in the election of 1886 did not even venture upon 
a contest, the reason of course being that there 
was no chance whatever of winning &eats, and 
they were afraid of showing their nakedness to 
the enemy. There was one important victory 
and there were two important defeats. Mr. Sex- 
ton renewed his attack on West Belfast and was 
returned by a startlingly large majority. On the 
other hand, Mr. Healy was beaten for South 
Derry, and Mr. William O'Brien for South Ty- 
rone. Thus the result of these two defeats was 
to reverse the verdict of Ulster at the previous 
election to the extent of giving the Orangemen 
the majority of one which was hitherto held by 
the Nationalists. This majority, however, is not 
yet secure. Mr. Justin McCarthy fought again 
for Derry City ; the majority against him was 
declared to be three, but a petition has since been 
presented making charges of personation and 
unfair rejection of votes, and as all the officials 
were unscrupulous Orangemen it is more than 
probable that the petition will prove successful. 
And thus again the Nationalists would be masters 
of Ulster. Another registration will probably 
give them two or three more seats, and the 
35 



6^ GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

Orange faction will be reduced to its proper di- 
mensions. When the elections were over it was 
found that the following had been returned : Con- 
servatives, 317; Liberal Unionists, 75; Home 
Rule Liberals, 191 ; Parnellites, 85; Speaker, i. 
This does not account for the Orkney and Shet- 
land Islands, the result of the elections for which 
were not known until long after the others were 
disposed of. For those islands, however, a Glad- 
stonian was returned. 

It will be well to say a word or two about the 
number of votes that were given. The figures 
were as follows: For the Conservatives, 1,106,651 
votes; Liberal Unionists, 417,456; Gladstonian 
Liberals, 1,347,983; Parnellites, 99,669. Total, 
2,971,759. Conservatives and Liberal Unionists 
combined, 1,524,107. Gladstonian Liberals and 
Parnellites, 1,447,652. It will thus be seen that 
out of a total of nearly three millions of votes 
in the three countries there was a majority for 
Unionists of 76,455. If we turn to Wales we 
find that the vote was : Gladstonian Liberals, 60,- 
083 ; Conservatives, 28,897 ! Liberal Unionists, 
10,005. Thus in the principality of Wales there 
was a Ministerial majority of 11,578 of the entire 
population. In Scotland the total poll was : 
Gladstonian Liberals, 191,443; Liberal Unionists, 
113,222; Conservatives, 50,800. And thus there 
was a majority for Home Rule in the Scotch 
electorate of 27,421. In England alone was there 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. 621 

a majority against Home Rule. The numbers 
were in England: Conservatives, 938,487 ; Liberal 
Unionists, 264,643; total Unionist vote, 1,203,130. 
Gladstonian Liberals, 1,096,457; Parnellites, 2,91 1. 
Total Ministerial vote, 1,099,368; Unionist ma- 
jority, 103,762. At all events, in England, Wales 
and Scotland alone 1,347,983 people have voted 
for Home Rule. A year before the Home Rulers 
in England were perhaps not more than a few 
thousand. At this election the Home Rulers 
were nearly a million and a half And this is no 
reason (to say the least) for discouragement. 
If we look upon the composition of the new House 
we find equally good reason for satisfaction. The 
Liberal Unionists are a hopeless party reduced 
in numbers, incapable of forming an administra- 
tion, and perhaps incapable of holding together, 
and Conservatives can only maintain an adminis- 
tration by the countenance and support of a cer- 
tain section of the Liberal Unionists, and there- 
fore by the continuance of the split between the 
different sections of the Liberal party. 

It is not at all improbable, that after the heat 
and ferocity of the election is over, even the 
Tories themselves may see that it is their in- 
terest to make an approach to the Irish party, 
which is more numerous than the Liberal Union- 
ists and votes as one man, instead of being split 
up into warring factions. Nobody believes any- 
how that an alliance between Tories and Liberals, 



622 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. 

however keen their anxiety may be to prolong it, 
can last for any length of time. There is sure to 
arise some question of foreign or domestic policy 
that will produce the natural division anyhow. 
No section of the Liberal party would consent 
forever to remain outside the Liberal party under 
the leadership of Mr. Gladstone, and every day 
will tend to • bring them and him together 
again. 

There is only one basis upon which this recon- 
ciliation of the Liberal party can take place, and 
that is the acceptance by the dissidents of Mr. 
Gladstone's policy of Home Rule for Ireland. 
For these reasons the Irish members and the Irish 
people look upon the present aspect of affairs 
with very equal mind, and regard the general 
election as a check, perhaps, but only an incident 
in the great campaign. In a few months govern- 
ments and parties will once more be brought face 
to face with the Irish problem, and the one prac- 
tical settlement for it is the acceptance of the 
Irish demand for an Irish Parliament. Nothing 
could better sum up the situation than the follow- 
ing words of the Rev. Stephen E. Gladstone, 
Mr. Gladstone's son. " Friends may rest assured, 
in spite of present reverses, that Mr. Gladstone 
has no more doubt that Ireland's aspirations for 
self-government will eventually be conceded to 
her, than that the sun which is hidden to-day will 
soon shine out splendidly again ; and for my part, 



THE GREAT IRISH STRUGGLE. §23 

I firmly believe that England, when better in- 
formed, will yet, 'unless the Conservatives change 
their minds,' wish to give him and his brave and 
true colleagues the commission to carry out a 
great measure of Irish self-government which 
will be but an act of wisdom, justice, and good- 
will." 

A prominent and startling series of events 
has taken place of late in Belfast and its vicin- 
ity. There has occurred in that important city 
a succession of terribly bloody riots between the 
Protestant and the Catholic portions of the pop- 
ulace. The overwhelming majority of the re- 
ports confirm the truth of the statement that the 
Protestants in almost if not quite every case have 
been the aggressive party, and it appears that 
they have surpassed their adversaries in cruelty 
and bitter zeal. The friends of Ireland have not 
forgotten the recent speech of Lord Randolph 
Churchill, in which he appeared to advise his 
loyalist hearers to take just exactly the course 
that these misguided bigots have taken. 

The opinion very generally held by well-in- 
formed Home Rulers, that Ireland has more 
reason to expect favors from the Conservative 
leaders than from a party so divided as is the so- 
called Liberal party of to-day, finds considerable 
support from the present aspect of public affairs 
in Great Britain. Already the air is full of 
rumors of grand and generous movements to be 



624 GLADSTONE— PARNELL. ^ V 

executed under Conservative auspices. One 
Conservative project is said to look to the speedy 
concession of Home Rule to England, to Scot- 
land and to Wales, as well as to Ireland — the 
united kingdom to be by this process transformed 
into a Federal Union of autonomous states. This 
project is at present a crude one ; and the an- 
swer to the question as to whether Ireland would 
be willing to become a member of such a federa- 
tion must depend largely upon the details of the 
scheme. These details, however, are as yet un- 
known to the general public, and it is enough 
to say that even those who may favor this 
plan have not as yet given to it any definite 
shape. 



THE END. 



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